Tagged: braves
It’s all Brad Hawpe’s fault…
When a baseball team is going as bad as the Padres are, you just have to have something to blame it all on.
I blame it on Brad Hawpe.
I guess it’s not entirely his fault, but everywhere I turn, he seems to be messing up here and there and helping us lose. It’s pretty frustrating.
In yesterday’s game, Mat Latos started and stunk. But of course, Hawpe helped out a lot. With two outs in the top of the second, he made a fielding error that cost us two runs right away, and then three more later in the inning. Way to go buddy.
Long, depressing story short, we lost 7-0. And yes, Brad Hawpe did ground into a double play to end the game.
I know that the whole team is in a bad slump, with the exception of most of the pitchers, but seriously. We need to get something going here. Of course, Tommy Hanson, who started the game for the Braves, had 10 strikeouts.
Right now, we have a collective team batting average of .208.We have struck out 213 times, which leads the majors. We also have the worst record in the majors at 9-16. We really, truly are detestable.
Well, we do have an off-day today, so maybe that will help things. Then we get to limp into LA and get creamed by the Dodgers. Can’t wait.
GO PADRES!!!!!
Good and Getting Better
Things were not looking good.
In the bottom of the first, Tim Stauffer gave up a three-run homer to Brian McCann. It was early, and it was only three runs, but something like that puts a damper on the game from the get-go.
But then again, these are the Padres we’re talking about.
For the past two years, the Padres have been characterized as a bad team. A losing team. A last-place team. But things are changing. Sure, we’re at the bottom of the NL West, but we’re playing very, very well right now.
Take last night for instance. We only had three hits in the first five innings, but in the sixth, we got seven hits and six runs. In the seventh, we got two runs on Kouz’s two-run homer, his 16th of the year. We got another run in the eighth, and three more in the ninth.
After the rough first, Tim Stauffer really got back on the ball and had a solid outing. He went five innings, allowing six hits and three runs with three walks and two strikeouts.
Adam Russell pitched 1.2 innings for us, allowing one run on three hits. We got Russell from the White Sox in the Jake Peavy deal. He just joined the team at the beginning of the series. It’s cool to see another piece of that trade helping us already. Kind of comforting.
OK, the offense. We had 18 total hits. Six Padres had a multi-hit game. Adrian and Eck each had three hits and drove in two runs. Everth Cabrera, Chase Headley, Will Venable, and T.Gwynn each had two hits. Kouz only had one hit, but drove in three runs.
The Braves made two errors that really helped the Padres. Definitely cost them some runs.
Joe Thatcher and Ryan Webb were good out of the bullpen. We won this game, 12-5.
I have to say, that feels so good. We won the series, which we have been doing a lot lately. It’s so exciting!!
This team definitely has problems, but their success is far overwhelming them. The Padres are 12-12 so far in August, which is a lot better than the last two months. We have a chance to have a winning month!
This team may be dead last, but they’re exciting to watch. I can now say that the Padres have an excellent chance of winning every day. I know that this team can hit and pitch and play defense, I’ve seen it day after day. I know they can do it, and it seems like nothing is a damper. These two Atlanta pitchers we just faced were supposed to be extremely tough. The one on Tuesday was, but we still came out on top. Yesterday, we drove the starter out of the game. The Padres can’t be classified as a terrible team anymore. Look at them. They deserve a lot more respect.
I’m super excited about next year. We have all the pieces, pieces that are finally working together as a team. We’re getting the job done. This team is going to be good. They’re good right now, and they’re only going to get better.
I wrote a three-page letter to Jake Peavy yesterday, front and back. Whew. I also wrote to Will Venable.
Tonight we are going for the sweep. Clayton Richard, who is 3-0 with the Padres so far, will start. I hope he has a great, great outing and gives us a chance to win.
GO PADRES!!!
Latos’ Gem
Last night was a great game. It was exciting and frustrating, but the Padres came out on top. Took a while to get there though…
Mat Latos started, and he was spectacular. By the fifth inning, I was getting really excited. I thought, maybe this is the night. Maybe it’s really going to happen!! Mat retired the first 13 batters before giving up a couple hits in the fifth. Oh well. I thought the Padres were finally going to get a no-hitter, but not yet. Not yet. He went seven innings total, giving up two hits with no walks and four strikeouts. I’d say that this was his best outing of the year. He was soooo good!!
Latos was helped by some incredible defense behind him. Will Venable, Everth Cabrera, and Tony Gwynn made some amazing plays.
In the third, Adrian Gonzalez hit his 34th homer of the season. That was all that either team could muster.
In the bottom of the ninth, Heath was making things interesting again. With one out, he allowed a single and a walk. An out later, he allowed a single to tie the game. Oh bummer. That was Heath’s third blown save of the year. Thankfully, though, he was able to keep the winning run on third and got out of the inning.
Well, the Padres bullpen did OK, but they had to work out of several jams. Heath was the only Padres pitcher who gave up a run last night.
So, the game went on into extra innings. The Padres didn’t get anything going until the 12th inning. Nick Hundley doubled to start it off. Tony Gwynn struck out. Luis Rodriguez walked. E-Cab struck out. Finally, Eck doubled to score Nick and give the Padres the lead. Leave it to Eck to get the job done 🙂
Edward Mujica threw a scoreless bottom of the 12th to get the save and close the game. We actually won!!!
It was a great game, since we won. BUT our batters struck out 16 times!! That is not good at all.
Latos was amazing, man. I am so excited about his future!! He’s going to get so much better. Wow. Great, great effort by Latos last night!!
I wrote two more fanmail letters yesterday: Heath Bell and Nick Hundley. I’m also going to write a letter to Jake Peavy sometime this week. Oh boy, that’s going to be a long one.
Well, the Padres and the Braves will go at it again tonight. Tim Stauffer and his 1-6 record will be pitching. Ugh. Oh boy. Well, he’d better pitch well. If he doesn’t tonight, I think he’s done. He’s had his chance up here.
GO PADRES!!!
Going for the Split :)
We lost 6-2 yesterday. So much for a series win.
Chad Gaudin was terrible from the very beginning of the game. He didn’t have his stuff at all, and it was not a good sign. Chad’s struggled a lot this year. If he’s not on at the beginning of the game, he’s not going to have anything for the rest of it. He got his 10th loss of the season yesterday. Yikes.
He only went 3.1 innings, giving up six runs on nine hits with two walks and three strikeouts. He was terrible!!
The bullpen did very well, thankfully. Luis Perdomo went 2.2 innings, Greg Burke went two, and Joe Thatcher went one. Bullpen’s been good. Starting pitching, bad.
We didn’t get any runs until the bottom of the sixth. Will Venable hit a two-run homer, his fifth home run in the last seven games. We had seven hits, and that was it.
This is a forgettable game. I had hoped for a series win, but the Braves jumped all over Chad Gaudin and we couldn’t get back.
Ah well. Negatives? Kouz grounded into three double plays. That is not the way to get things done around here, my boy…
Now the Mets are in town for four games. You’d better get at least a series split, boys!!
Oh man, that looks sooooo good!!
Clayton Richard is pitching tonight against Livan Hernandez.
GO PADRES!!!
A Streak Ended
Last night was a disaster. Don’t you just hate it when things are going really well in a game, and you turn your back for like five minutes and suddenly it’s 7-2 the other team? That’s what happened last night.
Things were going well. Will Venable gave us our first run in the bottom of the first with a solo homer. Nice job, you white-hot Will!
Tim Stauffer was pitching decently. He gave up a run in the top of the second to tie the game, and a run in the fourth to give them the lead. But the Padres came back in the bottom of the foruth with a Chase Headley double. Tie game, again. The game was looking like the night before, where both teams were matching each other.
Then Stauffer gave up a run in the fifth. He was done after that. Mujica came in to fail in the sixth. He gave up four runs on five hits before leaving the inning. He only got one out. Joe Thatcher came in and got the last two outs, which was good. But the damage was done.
Mike Ekstrom gave up two more runs in his couple innings. Where did he come from? Has he really been around? Man, I have no idea what’s going on around here.
Anyways, there’s no more to say about the offense because they didn’t do anything for the rest of the game. They got four hits to Atlanta’s 17. HA! Wow guys. That’s just great. Venable had one, Everth had one, and Chase had two doubles. We lost 9-2.
Worst part of this game is that Adrian’s consecutive game streak was snapped. Man, I hate it when things like that happen! I mean, why couldn’t he at least pinch-hit or something? Oh well. Adrian’s the kind of guy who wants to be out there every night, no matter what. He had a terrible fever earlier in the year and he pinch-hit that night. Almost had a home run, too. He played in 314 straight games before sitting out last night. Wow. Congrats on the streak, Adrian, and sorry that it had to end.
So, rubber game of this series today. I think we should win it. I really really think we need to win it. Now, that would be really cool! Chad Gaudin is pitching already, I think he just pitched on Sunday. He’d better pitch very well. He’s actually done a lot better with short rest, so this will be good for him. Ahhh, afternoon baseball at Petco Park. I wish I could be there 🙂
I found an photo editing program on my computer yesterday, and I had a lot of fun experimenting with it 🙂 Here’s one of the pictures that I was messing with:
Pretty cool, huh? 🙂
GO PADRES!!!
Glimpse of the Future
Last night’s game was like deja vu, except forwards. I think we saw a glimpse of the future, an echo of what is to come.
GLIMPSE OF THE FUTURE #1
Mat Latos made his fourth start as a Padre this season, and he was amazing. This guy has been called the next Jake Peavy in the Padres’ organization, and he’s one of the most prized pitching prospects we have. I wouldn’t say he’s a Jake Peavy yet, but he’s been very good.
Last night he threw seven innings, allowing two runs on six hits and striking out three. He did struggle early, loading the bases with no outs in the first, but he only allowed one run in that inning and one in the second. He kept the Braves down the rest of the way. It was great!
The Padres are probably going to shut down Mat in a month or so because he threw a ton of innings in the minors this year, and he’s been going seven a lot up here too. Gotta watch out for that arm of the future, you know 🙂
GLIMPSE OF THE FUTURE #2
Will Venable has really been heating up in the last week or so. Last night, he had three hits and drove in a run. Plus, he had a great sliding grab in right field.
Will was first called up to the majors in September last year, and he did very well. I think he came up this year when Brian Giles went on the DL. Now that we’ve got our outfield slimmed down, I think these guys are getting the playing time they need. Last night, Chase Headley was in left, Tony Gwynn was in center, and Venable was in right. And it worked!
I’d say that the biggest part of Will’s game is his defense. I watched a game once from the Beach out in the outfield, and I watched him make two spectacular plays to rob the hitters. It was so cool!! He’s good out there.
GLIMPSE OF THE FUTURE #3
Kyle Blanks has been so hot in the last week! Last night, he hit his sixth homer of the year to tie the game at two in the second. This guy had been tearing it up in the minors, so we knew he could hit. It took a while for him to get in a groove, but now that’s he’s made it, it’s so much fun to watch this big boy blast those balls out of here.
Blanks started playing the outfield after Spring Training, so he had even less time than Chase did last year to learn the outfield. Kyle has been decent out there. He hasn’t embarrassed himself, at least. But he has been able to play his natural position, first base, to give Adrian a break.
It’s going to be interesting to see how the Padres play Kyle. I think they would like him to be in his natural position eventually, but we’re holding onto Adrian for now. Hopefully they will be able to work that out without getting rid of another fan favorite.
GLIMPSE OF THE FUTURE #4
I’ve talked about Everth Cabrera before, but I just love this guy. He’s such an amazing player already, but he’s still learning. He’s still growing. He’s still improving!
This is Everth’s first season above Single-A. He was definitely ready for the Majors. Last night he had a hit in the seventh. He then stole second AND third base. Oscar Salazar drove him in with a single to give us an insurance run. What a player!! I love this guy. He’s going to be sooo great in the future!!
It was a great game. We got a run each in the first, second, and third innings. The bullpen was excellent. Mike Adams was ridiculously sharp. Wow. Did you know that his ERA is 0.86 right now? WOW!!!
Heath Bell was really great too. He went 1-2-3 with two strikeouts. The last out was a great play by Kouz, and we won the game 4-2!!
It’s always good to get the first game of the series, and the Padres played really well to get it. I am sooo proud of them! These young guys have been so amazing. It’s really exciting!
Tonight Tim Stauffer is pitching against Javier Vasquez. I think we can do it! These guys have confidence. I think that’s something that had been missing in the past few months.
GO PADRES!!!
Unfinished Business 