First off, quick recap of yesterday’s game against the Cubs: Kevin Correia gave up four runs on eight hits in 4.2 innings. Kyle Blanks hit a two-run homer. As you can see, the pitching did pretty well. The attendance of the game was 13, 162. That sets a new Spring Training record! Well, that’s enough of that game.

This morning I got up at six to go watch my brother’s 8:30am game. It stayed overcast almost the entire morning, which was really nice. I just had to share this picture with you guys. Of the four fields in the park, only the one we were playing on had this:

I thought that was really cool!

The game went really well. I kept score again, and though I felt kind of discombulated at places, I got through it and got the final score right! The Pirates got three runs in the bottom of the first to set the tone of the game. They got four more in the third. The Rays (who were the best team in the league), scored seven runs over the course of the third, fourth, and fifth innings, but the Pirates scored two in the bottom of the fourth and won the game, 9-7.

Looking back, it was a really crazy game. The Rays were pretty good, but we sure beat them up. They gave us nine walks in five innings! It was a wild game, but the Pirates were able to hand the Rays their first loss of the season. My brother did well. He hit a ball into fair territory for the first time, though he hit it to the pitcher. He was getting a lot of good swings, and I think he’s getting there. He also walked. This Pirates team is on a three-game winning streak. I might add that I started scoring the games on that first win, and I have scored the next two as well. Uh oh…I’m not going to be able to make it to their next game! Haha. Of course, me being there has absolutely no effect on the outcome of the game. I can pretend, though 🙂

The next part of the day was going to my other brother’s baseball game. To avoid any confusion, I have two younger brothers: one is ten, and one is seven. The games I have been talking about up to this point have all been the ten-year-old brother’s games. Now here’s where is gets a little confusing. Both of my brother’s teams are the Pirates. But they are in separate divisions.

Now I am talking about the seven-year-old brother’s game. They play against a pitching machine, and this was their second game. In the last game, the boys couldn’t hit it at all. They lost 2-0. But afterwards, it was discovered that the machine was six feet closer than it was supposed to be. So this time, with the pitching machine in it’s proper place, the boys did much better. They hit so well! Let’s just say that the final score was about 23-7 Pirates. I wasn’t scoring, so I don’t know the exact score, but it was somewhere in that range. The other team’s fielders weren’t that great, so almost every hit was going past, under, or around a fielder. Apparently there wasn’t much of a mercy rule. But I was very excited for my brother, who got two hits and scored a run. I think a lot of the boys were discouraged after the last game, so it was great to see them all go out and have a wonderful game. I really enjoyed watching it!

Now, the major-league Padres. The Padres got some horrible news yesterday: pitcher Mark Worrell is out for the year. I was listening to the game yesterday, and when Andy Masur told us the news, I just groaned. This is terrible news for the Padres. We aquired Worrell from the St. Louis Cardinals in the Khalil Greene trade along with a player to be named later. Worrell was almost guaranteed a spot in the bullpen. He did very well this spring, giving up two runs in 4.1 innings. Then he got some elbow soreness eariler in the week. He’s going to undergo Tommy John surgery on Wednesday. Remember, this is the guy with the funky side-arm delivery. Apparently that weird delivery caught up to him. This is a huge blow to the Padres. Our pitching has been doing bad enough as it is, and to lose this guy now is devistating. So, Kevin Towers will continue his search for more arms, and we’re definitely going to see some new pitchers in camp soon.

The third baseball game I observed today was the Padres-Giants game this afternoon. I got a lot of baseball in today! It was a pretty bad game. We had a 2-1 lead until the sixth. Then the Giants got nine runs. Walter Silva started the game, going four innings, giving up two hits and a run. I am really impressed with his guy. He can pitch, man. I think he’s going to be in our rotation. He was definitely the highlight of the game. Our newly signed pitcher, Duaner Sanchez, had a solid inning. Enter Jae Kuk Ryu. How’s eight runs for a day’s work? And he only got one out in all that. He hasn’t been the best this spring. Arturo Lopez gave up a run. Naturally, Joe Thatcher gave up two runs. WHY is he still here???

David Eckstein had a great day, getting three hits in three at-bats. Drew Macias hit his third home run of the spring. My boy Kevin Kouzmanoff had two hits and got hit-by-pitch. Yay Kouz!

Tomorrow we are playing the Diamondbacks, Josh Geer vs. Dan Haren. Let’s see if this pitching can do good things for once.

After my brothers both won, I thought, “Hey, it’s the Padres’ turn!” They didn’t get the memo, though. Oh well. Not to alarm anyone, (it’s only Spring Training!!!), but the Padres haven’t won since Wednesday, March 11, in the exhibition game against Team Korea. Wow, that was a long time ago. Just saying…a win would be really nice.

Jake Peavy was going to start USA’s game tomorrow, but Roy Oswalt is starting instead. Roy is one of Jake’s closet friends and hunting buddies, so Jake’s cool with it. Did you that they got to start against each other on Opening Day last year? Jake definitely came out on top on the pitching side, and he even got a couple knocks off his buddy and drove in a few runs. What a great opening week that was. Seemed so hopeful, and look where our season went. Whew. Anyways, I am thankful that Jake isn’t pitching because I don’t want him to get hurt 🙂

Last night I listened to the last eight minutes of the San Diego State – Kansas State basketball game. OK, the only reason I did it was because a friend was at the game, and I wanted to be informed. I don’t know much about baseketball (it’s too fast-paced for me), but it was really interesting to listen to. Padres broadcaster Ted Leitner called the game, so it was cool to hear him in his other job. One thing I noticed about the broadcast was the drastic change when the game is controlled by the clock. Ted didn’t have time to talk about anything but what was going on in the game right then. During a Padres game, the guys have a ton of time to talk about anything and everything around calling the game. Much more relaxed in baseball. Anyway, the San Diego State Aztecs won 70-52. It was a really great game for SDSU. I didn’t completely understand what was going on, but it was a very well played game. The energy coming from the crowd of 5100 was amazing!

Well, have a great rest of your weekend, everybody!

GO PADRES!!!

(phote credit: me)