Tagged: chris burke
Padres Split Series!
I guess my Padres didn’t want to travel to Houston in a school bus.
Chris Young started the game, going six innings, allowing three runs on five hits with four walks and six strikeouts. He had a great outing, he was battling hard.
On the other side, Dan Haren was doing a great job as well. He went six innings, giving up eight hits and three runs with two walks on four strikeouts.
In the third, the Diamondbacks struck first. After a single from Chris Snyder, Dan Haren of all people hit a double to help his own cause. He got to third on an error, and touched the plate on a sacrifice fly.
In the fifth, the Padres found a crack in Haren’s armor and were actually able to take advantage of it!
With two outs, Chris Young walked, Brian Giles singled, and Edgar Gonzalez drove in CY for our first run. Scott Hairston came to the plate and check-swinged on a pitch. Except the ball hit the bat and went into right field to drive in Giles. It was pretty bizarre!
In the sixth, the Diamondbacks added a run to take the lead. But in the bottom of the inning, we got that run right back.
With one out, my boy Kouz hit a single. Nick Hundley then doubled, and Kouz ran all the way home. I love this dude, but he’s really slow. It’s almost painfully to watch. He’s not as bad as say, Henry Blanco the Galapagos tortoise, but he’s still slow. So he almost got thrown out at the plate. But he scored safely, so that’s all that matters.
The game stayed tied for a long time. The Padres bullpen was able to hold the game, though. Barely.
Edwin Moreno came into the seventh, and got a few runners on with no outs, including two walks. I’m telling you, this guy is going to be on the bus to Triple-A very soon unless he stops walking people like he does. We just can’t have that, especially when he walks the first batter in a tie game. No no no.
Thankfully, Luke Gregerson came in and cleaned up Moreno’s mess, keeping the game tied. He also pitched a scoreless eighth.
Heath Bell took the ninth, allowing nothing and striking out one. Man, he’s sharp!
In the bottom of the ninth, Scott Hairston singled, but Adrian Gonzalez grounded into a double play.
Onto extra innings for the second time this week!
Cla Meredith pitched the top of the tenth, throwing five pitches to get three outs. He was sharp!
In the bottom of the tenth, it was time to close this thing down. Jody Gerut started it with a strikeout, but then Kouz doubled. Nick Hundley walked, and Chris Burke came to the plate.
Burke had a great at-bat. He fouled off six pitches, keeping the count full for a long time. He made the pitcher throw ten pitches before finally taking ball four to load the bases. That at-bat was crucial to winning the game.
Next, Hyun Young’s boy David Eckstein came to the plate. He only needed to take a strike and a ball before lining a single past the first baseman to score my boy Kouz.
We win!!
It was such a great game! We did leave 13 runners on base, which was very frustrating, but we were able to get some clutch hits and win the game.
I was very pleased with our pitching, especially the bullpen. They didn’t give up a run, which is so rare!
My boy Kouz had THREE hits, two singles and a double. He’s definitley been scuffling, so it’s great that he was able to have a good game like that.
We had 13 hits total, which we haven’t had in a long time. I am so glad that we were hitting!
It was a great win for the Padres and their fans, but apparently the Diamondbacks aren’t too happy with their 12-17 record. Arizona fired manager Bob Melvin today. They’re replacing him with A.J. Hinch. Interesting…
Manny is a jerk. Unfortunately, the Padres are only going to play the Dodgers twice during his suspension.
“It would have been nice if this had happened in spring training,” pitching ace Jake Peavy said. “I wouldn’t have had to face him.”
The Dodgers finally lost last night. They built up a six run lead, but blew it and lost 11-9 against the Natinals. Of all teams. Wow.
Well, I can’t say I’m entirely disappointed that Manny was suspended or that the Dodgers lost. My Padres are now only 7.5 games behind, third place in the NL West!
Well boys, I hope you enjoyed your luxury flight to Houston!
Tonight Chad Gaudin is pitching against Wandy Rodriguez. It will be a very interesting game…
GO PADRES!!
(photo credits: Union-Tribune, flickr.com)
Slammed Out
- 8-3 Giants
Jake Peavy started the game, giving up six runs in six innings on seven hits with three walks and three strikeouts. It was not pretty. We all expected Jake to be dominating, but from the beginning of the game, he didn’t really have it on. The big blow was a grand slam hit by Edgar Renteria in the fourth. That was bad.
It’s really too bad that Jake wasn’t able to get it on. That grand slam was the first he’s given up in his career, a span of 1,284 1/3 innings. I feel really bad for him, ’cause I know he’s really upset at himself for not performing as he should be. Hopefully he will be able to get locked in soon!
Our offense wasn’t the greatest. Matt Cain shut us down pretty well. We got a run in the first on a Brian Giles single. In the third, there was a strange play. Adrian Gonzalez and Chase Headley were on base when Kouz hit a booming double to deep right-center field. Adrian was being cautious, but Chase could see that the ball wasn’t going to get caught. As a result, they were literally on each other’s heels. Adrian slid into the plate, the ball came into the catcher, and Chase leaped over the catcher, getting himself tagged out. The umpire pointed to Chase, signalling him out, the pointed to Adrian, who had scrambled back and touched the plate. He was safe. It was bizarre! I’ve never seen anything like it. Kouz ended up at third, but was stranded there.
We got another run in the top of the ninth from a Brian Giles single, but that was it. We had 14 hits, but that was it. The Giants pitching held us down, that’s for sure.
The Giants got two runs off of Luis Perdomo, who threw 1.2 innings. Frankie De La Cruz threw one pitch to get out of the eighth.
It was a pretty sad game. We thought our ace would be able to take care of those Giants, but he wasn’t. We weren’t able to score runs when we had the chances. Frustrating…that’s what I would call it. But today is a new day.
It’s a 12:45 pm game, which is one of the most strange starting times I’ve seen. Chris Young will be pitching against Barry Zito. What a matchup! This will hopefully be a great game.
Yesterday, the Padres did a little reversing. They had traded Chris Burke to the Mariners for cash considerations, but then they traded cash considerations for Chris Burke yesterday.
So in a way, the Mariners were just taking care of him until we found a spot for him. I think it’s great that he’s back with the Padres. He was with the team for most of Spring Training, so he already knows all the guys. Plus, he’s been playing in the NL West with the Diamondbacks for a few years. Or year.
Anyways, I hope we have a really great game today!!
GO PADRES!!!
(photo credit: padres.com)
Rained Out But Ready To Go
Yesterday, the Padres-Phillies game got rained out.
But that’s OK for a lot of reasons. I think it means that the Padres won the series since they were leading 2-1. Also, it’s really lame to have a series go over the weekend and into the next week. Plus, it gave the team a lot of extra time to get over to San Francisco for two games. So overall, it was OK that this game got rained out.
But the Padres got some bad news yesterday about a young player of theirs. Everth Cabrera broke his left hand in Sunday’s game.
Everth is expected to be out for 6-8 weeks. He’s only 22, and this is his first season in any level higher than Single-A. We got him in the Rule 5 draft from the Rockies, and they were not very happy about that. This guy has a lot of potential. Before he got hurt, he had four hits and a walk in five games. He was also playing very well at shortstop. He is going to have surgery today, and hopefully we will see him back on the field soon!
With Everth’s absence, we are rather short on the middle-infield area. We have shortstop Luis Rodriguez and second baseman David Eckstein, but our only other middle-infielder is Edgar Gonzalez. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind getting more playing time, but I think we need another guy. Kevin Towers is working hard to get a guy today, before we play the Giants tonight.
I love it when we get new players. It’s so much fun! We’re probably going to get a cheap minor league-ish guy, but that’s OK. One of the names that’s floating around is Chris Burke, who was with us for most of Spring Training until he was traded to the Mariners for cash considerations. I don’t know if the Mariners would give him back, though.
But how about this guy?
Yeah, he hasn’t played a full season since 2007, but I think Marcus Giles would be an interesting player to have back. I really loved having him here in 2007, though his hitting was not that great near the end. He was in the Rockies’ Spring Training in ’08, and the Phillies in ’09, but he didn’t make the roster either time.
I think that would work out really well. What we really want is his defense. He’s a San Diego boy, and his brother Brian is on the team. Plus, he’s probably really cheap.
But then again, I don’t know if Marcus is interesting in playing baseball anymore. He has three little girls, and I think he’s content with just enjoying his family.
Also, he’s a natural second baseman. I don’t think he’s ever played shortstop. But maybe Eckstein could move over the shortstop and Marcus could take second…nooooo. Marcus would have to be on the bench and maybe spell Eckstein once in a while. Well, maybe not. It would be cool to have Marcus here in San Diego again, but that probably won’t work out.
Nevertheless, it will be cool to see who our new player will be.
Today we are playing the Giants in SanFran. Watch out Giants…look who’s pitching!
BWAHAHAHAHAHA!! Let’s see…he started the season with an average game, then had a stellar game, then an average game, so now he’s due for a stellar game. As in, 8 or 9 innings, 10 or so strikeouts, and maybe only a couple hits allowed. Yeah, that feels just about right.
Jake’s opponent will be Matt Cain, who we’ve hit very well in the past few years. I think it’s going to be a really great game tonight.
GO PADRES!!!
(photo credits: schulzmuseum.org, upload.wikimedia.org, cache.daylife.com)
Padres sign two players, etc
Yesterday, Trevor Hoffman officially signed a one-year, $6 million deal with incentives with the Milwaukee Brewers. Wow, that picture looks so weird! Anyways, I wonder if there will be a press conference. Trevor probably doesn’t want all the attention, but the Brewers might want it. “Hell’s Bells” will be playing in Miller Park this year. We are going to miss him.
For those who recommened that I send my entry Why Trevor? to the Padres’ front office, it’s in the mail right now. I have no idea if they will ever get to it, but it was certainly worth a try. Last night I remembered that General Manager Kevin Towers never watched Trevor when he went out to get a save. KT was too superstitous. New theory: since KT has never seen it, he doesn’t know how much it means to Padres fans! Right…
In other Padres news, we signed two players! Last year, we signed pitcher Mark Prior to a one-year deal. He got hurt, had surgery, and didn’t throw a pich for us even in a Spring Training game. Now the Padres have given him a second chance. It will be very interesting to see if he can come back after all his rehab and do well for the Padres. He has not piched since 2006, but I hope he can do well. Depending on his spring, he might be in the rotation. Let’s see: Jake Peavy, Chris Young, Cha Sueng Baek, Mark Prior, and Kevin Correia. I like it! But I think there will be a bit of a competition for those last two spots. Josh Geer and Wade LeBlanc might be in there, too.
We also signed second baseman Chris Burke. This is a bit strange, since we have Edgar Gonzalez, Travis Denker, Matt Antonelli and possibly Luis Rodriguez in the mix for second. But Burke is very versatile. He’s played first, second, shortstop, third, and even outfield. He will probably get a look at shortstop. Maybe he will be platooning with Rodriguez?? We’ll have to see.
Also, this a bit late, but Jim Rice and Rickey Henderson got elected to the Hall of Fame on Monday. I wasn’t around during their careers, but from what I’ve heard, they both deserve it. Henderson did play with the Padres for a few years, and he seems like quite the character. Congratulations to both of these guys!
Just wanted to thank you all for your great response to my tribute to Trevor. I actually wrote that when I first heard that he became a free agent in early November. I am going to find the Brewers’ fan mail address and send Trevor a printout of that page. It’s the least I can do for the all-time saves leader.
Unfinished Business 