• 2-2 tie

Shoot, I just lost my whole entry. Oh well. Here I go again…

Well, the Padres played pretty well today. Starting pitcher Kevin Correia went the first two innings and gave up one home run. Heath Bell had a good inning, much better thatn Thursday’s. Hopefully he has found his groove. Meredith, Worrell, Britton, and Patterson each had a good inning. But in the 8th, Oneli Perez ran into Ross Gload, or rather Gload ran into one of Perez’s pitches. That tied up the game after the Padres had had a 2-1 lead for a while.

On the offensive side, the Padres did pretty well. Adrian Gonzalez drove in a run with a double. The next batter, Cliff Floyd, went first pitch (again) and drove Adrian in. Will Venable, Chad Huffman, and Jody Gerut also had a hit each. We also walked seven times.

Today Andy Masur and Ted Leitner were not on the broadcast (probably because of basketball duties), but new TV play-by-play guy Mark Neely joined Jerry Coleman to call the game. It was very interesting to hear Neely doing the play-by-play on the radio when he will usually be doing it on TV. Obvioulsy, TV and radio are very different animals, but I though Neely handed the radio very well. For his first time working with Jerry and calling Padres baseball, that is. I was impressed. He kept us up to date on the score, inning, batter, etc. It was very interesting, and it will be cool to see him working with the other Mark (Grant) this year on Channel 4.

But one thing that I am wondering about is why they are using a commercial that features calls by former Padres play-by-play guy Matt Vasgersian. Isn’t that kind of rude to Neely? Well, Mattie has been here for a long time, so maybe those were the only clips they had. But they should have used clips from the radio! Oh well. I’m sure Neely doesn’t really mind.

Tomorrow, we are playing the Cubs back in Peoria. I could hear a lot more Padres fans in the stands today, but I know there will be a ton tomorrow. Jake Peavy will pitch the first two innings, and then head out to Florida to start training for the WBC. We will miss you, Jake, but make us proud as you represent the USA. Wade LeBlanc will pitch the next two innings. GO PADRES!!