Tagged: rockies
Kouz to the big leagues!
Kouz has now been called up to the Rockies!!! Yay!!!! I’m really, really happy for my boy. It’s good to see that he’s going to finally get back in the majors. And guess what? We’re playing the Rockies next weekend at home. Oooohhh…an idea comes to mind. I need to go!
ANYWAY, the Padres won last night! It was so great. Gotta love beating the Giants. We won 7-5. The Giants tied the game 5-5 in the bottom of the eighth, but thankfully, we got two runs in the top of the ninth, and Heath Bell got the save.
Speaking of which. Heath Bell got placed on waivers yesterday, and the Giants claimed him today. I don’t think he’ll actually go over to them, but it would be kind of funny. No, not really. I love having Heath here. It would be really sad if he went away.
Tim Stauffer against Tim Lincecum tonight.
GO PADRES!!
Bookended By Failure
There were two defining moments in tonight’s game: the beginning and the end. But the rest of the game stank too.
Alberto Gonzalez expresses his frustration after striking out in Monday's game against the Colorado Rockies. (San Diego Union-Tribune)
Coming off of three straight wins against the Nationals over the weekend, the Rockies came to town and dispelled any hope that Padres fans might have mustered.
After Carlos Gonzalez struck out to start the game, Chris Nelson tripled and Troy Stinking Tulowitzki singled him in for the Rockies’ first run of the game. That was the bad beginning.
The score stayed one-nothing Rockies for the rest of the game, at least until the top of the ninth. Of course, if the Padres hadn’t overcome that daunting lead all game long, they probably wouldn’t be able to overcome it in the bottom of the ninth, but it’s nice to hope. So it still wasn’t cool that the Padres gave up two more runs to obliterate any chance of coming back.
And in the middle, there were plenty of bad things made this game stink. Including but not limited to:
- The fact that we had the same amount of hits as the Rockies did (9), but somehow the Rockies scored three runs and we scored none.
- The fact that we left 11 runners on base and were 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position.
- The fact that Clayton Richard threw an amazing game, but got his seventh loss of the year.
- The fact that we are a last-place team never helps things either. Sigh.
It was just a sad game. I don’t appreciate it when we lose like that. Oh well.
Tim Stauffer will try to get us some shred of dignity tomorrow night against Ubaldo Jimenez.
First round of the draft was today. The draft has never really excited me because we always get the worst players, but who knows. Congrats to infielder Cory Spangenberg on being the Padres’ first-round draft pick this year. I hope you have better fortune than other recent Padre first-round draft picks.
GO PADRES!!!!
WANTED: A first baseman who doesn’t have an average of .116
Not only is our hitting non-existent, but I’ve realized that our defense is really shoddy as well. We’ve had so many errors in the last week, and I’m sure many of them have led to game-winning runs.
Last night we played the Phillies at home, and it was really bad. Going into the ninth inning, we had three hits. Three total in the whole game. And the Phillies led 3-0. We did get a couple of runners on in the ninth (of course), but we didn’t get the clutch hit (of course).
I really don’t know what to say. We are in a horrible slump, and it’s really early. I don’t know if I should be settling in for a looooooong hard season or if I should keep hoping game after game that we will score some runs, at least. I’m used to cheering for a losing team, but that does not make it any easier.
One of the worst players on this team right now is Brad Hawpe. I’ve never, ever liked this guy. I couldn’t stand him when he was on the Rockies, especially because he was involved in Game 163. Then, he was so good that I couldn’t stand him. Now, he’s so bad that I want to storm into the Padres’ front office and make them release him. His average right now is the lovely .116. Buddy Black brilliantly stuck him in the game in the bottom of the ninth with two runners on and two outs. Did he honestly think that Brad would be able to like, get a hit? Drive in a run? Impossible! I would have taken my chances with Alberto Gonzalez.
Brad Hawpe has played in 16 games and he has five hits with two RBIs. Alberto Gonzalez had only played in 10 games and he has five hits with three RBIs. Alberto is hitting .238. I think the choice is obvious, but of course Buddy put in Hawpe, and he convieniently struck out to end the game. WAY TO GO, BRAD. WE REALLY APPRECIATED THAT.
I don’t know about this, guys. We are pretty pathetic right now. And *sob* we’re in the cellar of the NL West. I hate the cellar. We were never in the cellar at all last year, and it makes me really sad that we’re back down there in that dark, sad, depressing place.
Get it back together, boys. No matter what, I will always be a Padres fan. I’m going to cheer for these guys no matter what, but I would apprieciate a good win every once in a while, if you can muster that. Thanks.
Oh, yeah, and Happy Good Friday 🙂
GO PADRES!!!!!!!
(Photo: Associated Press)
Just What We Needed
The last two games against the Rockies have been SWEET. There’s positives and negatives to playing at Coors Field: one is that your offense really gets going. But the negative is that the Rockies’ is going too.
Jon Garland pitched an amazing game last night. He threw seven innings, allowing three runs, but only one of them was earned. Plus, he went 2-for-2 with a run scored. What a night!
So, about that offense. We had 16 hits last night, which was pretty sweet. Aaron Cunningham and Ryan Ludwick (finally) had three hits each. Eck, Tejada, and Garland had two hits each.
One person I was not happy with, though, was Chase Headley. He left seven runners on base! He did have the decency to finally get a hit in the ninth, though, but he got left on base himself. Oh well.
Speaking of the ninth, it was hilarious because Heath Bell got to bat! He had come into the game in the bottom of the eigth (a horrible inning because we could not get anyone out) and then, of course, he was going to pitch the bottom of the ninth, so he had to bat for himself. I’d say that he actually did a decent job. He ran the count to 3-2 before lining out to right field.
But the bottom of the ninth is a completely different story. I was not pleased with Heath’s performance mostly because he made every single Padres fan probably have a heart attack.
So we had a 7-4 lead, right? Plenty of breathing room for Heath. He rarely gets leads that big. He should have enjoyed it. Well, maybe he was enjoying it a little too much.
Long inning short, he allowed two runs, facing five batters with only one out, until finally finally he got a double play to end the inning. HUGE sigh of relief. Punching out the frustration on walls. Fainting in relief. Outburst of anger towards Heath for making us go through that. Then finally, joy in realizing that we won and we’re still top of the NL West, baby!!
Just look at those standings, man. It’s amazing how much can change in just a few days. We are now 1.5 games ahead of the Giants, and 3.5 games ahead of the Rockies. A tiny bit more breathing room, but it feels so much better than that rut we were in a few days ago. Whew.
Well, the game is starting and hopefully we can get the sweep.
GO FIRST-PLACE PADRES!!!
A Loss is a Loss
I do have to say, last night’s game was CRAZY!!! First of all, I had no doubt that my boys would be able to get a few hits and a bunch of runs off of Ubaldo Jimenez. I just didn’t account for the fact that the Rockies would get a few hits and a bunch of runs off of Kevin Correia.
Kevin Correia is a great pitcher. At least he was last year. But I was looking at some of his numbers yesterday and I realized that he isn’t doing as well as I thought he was. Last year he was a complete surprise and could have even been called our ace. But now, I’m started to get worried about him. Once I get over my anger, then I’ll really start to get worried about him.
Here’s where he’s at right now: his record is 5-6 with an ERA of 5.49. In 15 games started, he’s given up 49 earned runs, with 11 home runs. Not good. Not good at all. In fact, I think he’s the worst pitcher on the club, numbers wise. Tsk tsk.
And last night’s game was awful for him!! Before I could blink we were down 4-0. And then 6-0. And then 8-0. It was horrible!! He only went five innings, giving up six runs on seven hits. He walked six and struck out three. He gave up two home runs! I am very upset that he lost the game like that, but more than that, I’m worried! This pitching staff has been practically invincible! We can’t have guys going out there and giving up six runs. I’m sorry. It’s just not acceptable.
So what’s going wrong for Kevin Correia?
I’m not a pitching coach, and I don’t get to study the players on TV like I’d love to, so I can’t tell you what’s wrong. I don’t know if he’s made a change in his mechanics, if he’s going through something that just won’t get off his mind, if it was just the night, the batters, the team that he was facing. I don’t know what it is, but I know that the Padres have an excellent pitching coach(s) that will find out what’s wrong and will fix it.
Okay, now to the good news. The bad news is that we lost 10-6, which is an atrocious amount of runs for our pitching staff to give up. But the good news is that we did get six runs. But the bad news is that we had the tying run at the plate and we didn’t come through.
I’ll talk about the good news a little. First off, I was super not happy because we were no-hit through five innings. Before the game, I refused to believe that the best pitcher in the majors would be able to hold down my Padres. And we did get to him, eventually, but it was super hard waiting through all those innings just dying for one hitter, any hitter, to do his job and get a hit.
Finally, in the bottom of the sixth, T. Gwynn led off the inning with a walk. Eck singled (finally), and an out later, Chase Headley drove in our first run of the game. Scott Hairston then hit a three-run homer to make it a ballgame, 8-4. It was soooo exciting!!
Then in the seventh, Adrian Gonzalez drove in one with two outs. Chase was batting next, and Adrian got to go to second because of a balk. Then Chase singled, which sent Adrian to third, setting up the stage for Scott Hairston again.
Here’s where the turning point of the game was. Scotty hit a line drive right down the left field line. If it was just a tiny bit higher, it would have been a three-run-game-tying homer. Now, this would be a moot point if the Padres had been able to get those two runs in. We only got one run on Scotty’s double, so Chase and Scotty were still there on base with two outs. We were not able to come through.
It was not a good game. I mean, I guess part of it was good because we did come back slightly. But the pitching stunk, the hitting wasn’t enough, and we didn’t get a win. Blech.
But I figured that if we didn’t get last night’s game, it was okay because we could always get tonight’s and tomorrow’s. Our first-place lead is safe. We can spare one game, but only one, per series. Preferably none at all, but you know, you win some and you lose some.
Tonight, let’s win some. We’ve got Wade LeBlanc going out there against Jason Hammel. We can do this!!
GO FIRST-PLACE PADRES!!!
Rocky Game But A Win
Chase Headley: Baseball America High Class-A All-Star 2006. Baseball America Double-A All-Star 2007. MLB.com Double-A Offensive Player of the Year 2007. Now he’s been in the major leagues for almost two years, and that player that he was in the minor leagues is finally coming out.
We had lost the first game of the series against the Rockies on Monday, so we definitely needed this game. Wade LeBlanc started the game for us, and he was excellent. He went six innings, only allowing two runs and two walks. He was really, really good.
In the bottom of the fourth, Jerry Hairston tripled in Chase Headley, who had singled to start the inning.
The Rockies got their two runs in the top of the fifth, which was disappointing.
I’m a Padres fan, and I always try to keep the faith, because these guys have proved to me over and over again that they will fight hard to win the game no matter what. But I have to admit, things were not looking that great. We left *cringe* 11 runners on base, and were only 2-for-7 with runners in scoring position. At one point, we left the bases loaded. Kyle Blanks got thrown out at the plate. We were not getting that clutch hit, and that was a problem.
In the bottom of the eigth, Will Venable got a triple. Jerry Hairston sac-flied him in to tie the game.
Luke Gregerson threw two fantastic innings after Wade left the game. Heath Bell got the top of the ninth, and, for once, he didn’t allow a hit. He did allow a walk, though, so he’s still up to his “I have to make everything interesting” act.
In the bottom of the ninth, it was time to get this game wrapped up. Extra innings are super annoying, and besides, there’s no time like the present. You know how those extra inning-ers go: the longer the game gets, the harder the guys press to get it over and nothing happens for a really long time. Sure, those games are fun sometimes, but they should be avoided at all costs. Thankfully, we did not have to drift into the land of extra innings last night.
Lance Zawadski started off the inning with a walk. Tony Gwynn sac-bunted Lance over to second. David Eckstein, who had been caught stealing earlier in the game, flew out to left field. Adrian Gonzalez was intentionally walked, which was very expected, to try to get to Chase Headley.
Wrong move, buddy.
Chase has been in that situation a lot, and he’s really taken the most advantage of it. Hahahaha when are they ever going to learn? Chase is going to come through for us. Maybe he wouldn’t have last year, but that was then. Now, he’s going to come through and send everyone home happy…everyone except Jim Tracy, that is.
After taking a ball in the dirt, Chase sent a single out to right field that Carlos Gonzalez didn’t even bother to retrieve. Lance scored, and the Padres won the game!!
What a great game of baseball. Amazing pitching, tons of suspense, and some good offense. Unfortunately, the Padres had a lot of little blunders, but at least they were able to win the game.
Besides Chase Headley, there was another player in this game who did extremely well. I’m telling you, this might have been the best pickup of the off-season: Jerry Hairston Jr. He’s been extremely valuable, especially in the field. Absolutely amazing. Shortstop is in good hands while E-Cab’s on the DL. No worries there. Last night he had a hit and drove in two runs.
You know what I realized last night? I realized that Kyle Blanks is not a natual outfield. I think that kind of got lost in the shuffle here. The guy’s a first baseman, and he’s doing an amazing job out there. He’s got zero errors and 30 putouts. I guess I feel like his switch from infield to outfield wasn’t as publicized as Chase’s was. Anyways, keep up the great work out there, Kyle.
Chase is doing amazing, and it’s soooo good to see. We’ve really been needing a guy who can threaten pitchers enough that they don’t walk Adrian to try to get to him. It might take a while to get that into pitcher’s heads, but hopefully Chase keeps that success and really does turn into a threat behind Adrian. He certainly did the job last night.
Very well played game by my boys last night. Let’s win this series tonight!! GO CLAYTON RICHARD!!
GO FIRST PLACE PADRES!!!
Unbelievable!
Okay, so I was shocked that we were able to win two in a row. Saturday’s game against the Diamondbacks was amazing! We won 5-0, and it was just a great game. I was thrilled that we finally won our first series of the year. It was about time! I was very happy that we were able to get the series, and I would have been content with that. But my boys weren’t. They wanted to get all three, and guess what? They did!
This is the team who was 3-6 coming into this weekend’s series. They had yet to win a series at all. Things were not clicking for them at all, and then suddenly, they came out and won three games. It’s seriously unbelievable. I’m so amazed at this turnaround!
Sure, it was only one series, but we won all three games in that series. The first game was a huge come-from-behind-walk-off win. The second one was a dominating shutout. And the third…my goodness, that was a game to remember.
Wade LeBlanc was called up on Saturday night to take Chris Young’s start. Speaking of Chris Young, things are not looking good. Sigh.
Wade had an amazing spring and was really impressive. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough room for him on the major league team, but he was sent down to Triple-A with the promise that he would be back up in the majors in no time. We hate to see a guy like CY go down so quickly, and Wade was definitely up here faster than he thought he would be. Still, it’s a good thing that we do have guys like Wade who are great pitchers and can come up anytime we need them.
Wade threw five innings, allowing seven hits, one run, two walks, and struck out seven. Talk about an incredible outing, that’s what Wade gave us yesterday. Man, he was sooo good! I think that was the best outing by any starting pitcher so far this season. He’s got a beautiful ERA of 1.80.
The Diamondbacks got a run in the top of the first and another one in the top of the sixth off of Edward Mujica. But in the bottom of the seventh, my boys found their bats.
Scotty Hairston hit a solo homer to start the inning. BANG! We’ve got our first run on the board.
Two outs later, Everth Cabrera singled and stole second. Jerry Hairston Jr. doubled, sending Everth home to tie the game. Adrian was intentionally walked, which brought up Chase Headley.
Chase hit the ball way out into left-center field. Jerry and Adrian scored, and the throw from the outfield was caught by nobody. Chase kept chugging around the bases, and with nobody covering home and the baseball somewhere around the mound, he scored the fifth run of the inning. I’d call in an inside-the-park home run, since it’s been a super long time since we had one of those, but it was ruled a double and an error. Oh well. Still, it was an amazing hit and play.
In the ninth, Heath Bell came in to try to get his third save of the year. Of course, he had to make things interesting by allowing a run, but he was able to close the 5-3 win and the series sweep.
Complete domination. I love that we were able to be at home and sweep the team that took two out of three in our opening series. We seriously dominated, and it was soo much fun to see!
I’d like to talk a little bit about how the NL West is shaping up so far. It’s actually been very interesting to watch all the teams in it, ’cause it’s been very different than the past few years have been.
The Giants have been on top since the season started. They’re 8-4 right now. In the middle, we have the Rockies, Dodgers, and the Padres all at 6-6. Arizona’s at the bottom with a record of 5-7. What has been really interesting to me is that the Dodgers have been matching the Padres almost exactly.
I don’t know how the NL West is going to play out, but as always, it will be interesting to see how things pan out over the season.
I’m so proud of my boys. It was amazing what they were able to do this weekend, and I really really hope that they keep it going!
We’ll be playing the Giants for three games here at home. This could be a crucial series between the two teams. I’m really excited about my boys, and I hope that they are able to keep dominating.
GO PADRES!!
Lookin’ Good
On Saturday we lost 7-4. Jerry Hairston had three hits, though, which is super cool. Jon Garland pitched really well. He went two innings, only allowing one run on two hits. Definitely good to see. On Sunday, the game got rained out.
Yesterday I turned on the radio at about 12:45 and checked XX 1090 to see if the game was going. All I heard was Darren Smith, so I assumed that the game had been rained out again. I’m so stupid. Actually, the radio stations are being stupid. I had completely forgotten that they’re going to be broadcasting most of the games on 1700! That’s really annoying ’cause 1090 was coming in bad enough, and I wonder if I’ll be able to hear the games at all on 1700. Sigh. They’d better keep all the regular season games on 1090, and even better, go back to 105.7. Oh well.
Anyways, so we did play yesterday, even though I didn’t hear it. We played the Rockies and lost 5-4, though we did pretty well. K-Cor started, allowing two runs over three innings. Clayton Richard and Heath Bell had scoreless innings, but Cesar Ramos allowed three runs in his inning.
We did pretty well on the offensive side. Adrian got a hit. Whew. I was getting a little worried there.
And look at Chase…that guy’s on fire! He hit a home run yesterday, so now he has two hits so far with three RBIs. Chad Huffman had a two-run double. Matt Antonelli also had an RBI double.
We’re playing the Angels in Tempe today. Chris Young’s going to pitch again, so that’ll be cool.
So how does this team look so far? We’re 1-3, but that doesn’t matter a bit. So far, I’m really liking the defense, the baserunning, and the pitching. Our pitchers haven’t been perfect, but they’re doing very well. Things are looking goooood.
In other news, the A’s lost 10-3 to the Cubs, but Kouz still doesn’t have a hit. I know you can do it KOOOOZ!!!!! Miss you!!!!
GO PADRES!!!
Saving The Game
The Padres and Rockies played the rubber game of a three-game series last night in Colorado. This Padres team has really, really settled into their role as spoiler very nicely. It’s been amazing to watch! And they never give up. That’s what I’m loving here. They may be down, but they’re not done.
In the first inning, Troy Tulowitzki hit a three-run homer to put the Padres down earlier. We had a lot of problems getting that clutch knock all night. And yet, somehow, we were able to get the win!
Clayton Richard threw very well. He went six innings, allowing three runs on seven hits, with two walks and two strikeouts. He did have that one bad pitch to Tulo, but for the next five innings, he was very good.
In the top of the fifth, Nick Hundley hit a solo homer, his eighth of the year. Nick had a huge game. He had two hits, drove in two runs, and scored three runs. Good job Nick!!
In the seventh, we got the bases loaded, and the pitcher walked in a run! YAY!! That made the game 3-2 Colorado. David Eckstein hit a sac-fly to bring in the tying run.
In the eighth, Nick and T. Gwynn each drove in a run with a single. That gave us a 5-3 lead.
Ian Stewart homered in the bottom of the inning to bring the Rockies close. We went 1-2-3 in the top of the ninth, and I was not happy. I thought Heath was going to be coming out, so I was like WE NEED SOME MORE INSURANCE!! But we didn’t get anything.
Thankfully, Heath was unavailable, and Luke Gregerson pitched the bottom of the ninth. I trust Luke a lot more than Heath right now, that’s for sure.
Luke made it a little interesting by allowing a single, but he had this. He got three outs and his first major league save and yet another Padres series win!!!
YAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!
I’d say that Nick Hundley and Luke Gregerson tie as players of the game. Plus, they worked really well together in that last inning.
Last night was the Padres’ rookie razzing. Sounds like 14 players had to dress up. Wish I could see picture of that!
We won yet another series against yet another contending team!! It’s amazing how well we’ve played spoiler. I don’t think this will keep the Rockies out of the postseason, but still. A series loss is a series loss. The Padres still have the Dodgers and Giants to spoil. OK, and the Diamondbacks too.
We’re playing the Diamondbacks for three games this weekend. K-Cor is pitching tonight!! YAY!!
GO PADRES!!!
A Will And A Way
After a disappointing game on Tuesday, the Padres were ready to put it behind them and get something going in the second game of the series against the Rockies.
Tim Stauffer started. He only threw 4.2 innings, though. He had a no-hitter going into the fifth, but he had allowed five walks and his pitch count was way up. He allowed two runs on three hits when he was unable to get out of the fifth inning.
In the second, Will Venable hit his 12th homer of the year to give us a 1-0 lead. Later in the inning, T. Gwynn singled in Oscar Salazar for our second run.
In the fifth, Tim Stauffer and Everth Cabrera singled to start off the inning. One out later, Adrian walked. Yet another out later, Will Venable doubled in all three guys. Sweet!!!!
The bullpen was great. Ryan Webb, Joe Thatcher, Mike Adams, and finally, Heath Bell. Heath was able to get his 40th save of the year. Yay Heath!!
We won 6-3, spliting the series.
Yay 🙂
Talk about Will Venable, man. Seems like we’ve had a lot of specific guys who are heros of the game lately. Like last week we had Luis Durango. Chase Headley had a huge game this week. Now Will. It’s so cool! These guys are thriving up here, and it’s so much fun to watch.
Will had two hits and drove in four runs. He also walked once! Congrats, Will, you’re the player of the game!
I’m loving the blue and sand, by the way. The guys have been wearing that a lot on the road trip, and it looks great.
I haven’t heard any news about Kouz today. Hopefully he’s getting better like crazy and will be ready to go out there next week!!!! GET WELL SOOOOOOOON KOOOOOOOOOOZ!!!!
Just FYI, this team is amazing. I’ve been having so much fun following this team for the past few months, I don’t want it to end! But we only have NINE games left!! WAAAAAAA!!
Oh well. Next year will be amazing.
So the rubber game is tonight. Rockies vs. Padres. Clayton Richard vs. Jason Hammel.
GO PADRES!!!
Unfinished Business 