Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Eckstein continues clutch hitting as Padres win in 12

Tuesday August 25, 2009

The San Diego Padres' David Eckstein continued his white hot hitting in clutch situations as he drove in catcher Nick Hundley for what proved to be the winning run with 2 outs in the top of the 12th inning in Atlanta tonight.

Eckstein was hitting an incredible .366/.422/.561/.983 with runners in scoring position and 2 outs for the Padres this season coming into tonight's game.

Mat Latos, widely thought to be the savior for the beleaguered Padres pitching staff going into 2010, was dominating. Latos threw 7 scoreless innings, giving up just 2 hits and no walks while striking out 4 in just 89 pitches.

Heath Bell gave up 2 hits, a walk and 1 run in the 9th inning to blow his 3rd save of the season. Bell has saved 30 games while blowing just 3 save opportunities.

Braves rookie reliever Kris Medlen took the loss. Joe "Becky" Thatcher got the win and Edward Mujica got the save for the Padres.

Chula Vista Little League team struggles

Tuesday August 25, 2009

After dominating in its first two games, winning 15-0 and 14-0, the Chula Vista Little League team struggled against San Antonio, losing 6-3.

Padres injury woes continue

Tuesday August 25, 2009

First round draft pick Donavan Tate's professional debut will have to wait. He has officially been sidelined until Spring Training 2010 with what was originally described by the Padres as an abdominal strain and now is officially being called a "stress reaction to his pubic bone".

My flies on the wall have said that it is actually a tear of his inguinal ligament and that he tore it in batting practice on his first day as a Padre. It sure seems that Tate came in cold after not swinging a bat for months and just tried to do too much to impress the Padres players and brass.

In other injury news, Mike Adams, the Padres most effective reliever the past 2 months, was placed on the DL with an posterior? strain in his surgically repaired right shoulder.

While the Padres are claiming it is not in the same place as the torn labrum that was repaired surgically last season and caused Adams to miss the end of the 2008 and the first 2 months of the 2009 season, it obviously is related.

I would not expect to see Adams back this year or, if the Padres luck/curse continues, maybe not even the beginning of next year.

If it was not for a late rush/rash of injuries to New York Mets players, the Padres would once again be leading the league in player days on the DL. As it is they will come into the last days of the season neck and neck to set a new major league record for injuries.

If they win/lose the injury race, it will be the 2nd straight season that the Padres have set a major league record in player days on the disabled list.

Latos rebounds well

Tuesday August 25, 2009

After giving up 12 earned runs in 7 2/3 innings over his last two starts, San Diego Padres future ace Mat Latos rebounded well to hold the Atlanta Braves scoreless through 7 innings.

In a dominating performance, Latos allowed only 2 singles and no walks while striking out 4 in just 89 pitches.

In an effort by the Padres brass to not overtax his arm after he only pitched 56 innings in 2008, Latos is likely to get just one more start this season. This should bring his innings pitched to about 120 on the 2009 season between 3 levels of baseball.

Legions of Padres "stathead" fans are hoping that Latos doesn't pitch more than 5 1/3 innings in next start and keeps his major league innings pitched under 50 so that he will still be officially a rookie next season.

Unfortunately, the Padres bullpen, in a determined effort, blew the 1-0 lead Latos left them with. Luke Gregerson loaded the bases before getting through the 8th without giving up a run and in the 9th, Heath Bell gave up a two out single to blow his 3rd save of the season.

Gregerson and Bell gave up 3 times as many base runners in 2 innings than Latos gave up in 7 innings.

Another blown call by the Umps.

Tuesday August 25,2009

In a year that has been littered with an unusually large number of blown calls by the officials, Rick Reed, the 3rd base umpire in today's game between the San Diego Padres and the Atlanta Braves at Turner Field blew another obvious one.

A fan reached into the field and interfered with Kevin Kouzmanoff catching a foul ball. The umpire made no call on a play that was so obvious to everyone with better than 20/200 vision that mild mannered Padres manager Bud Black actually came onto the field to argue the play.

The good news is that the play did not contribute to a run being scored and thus didn't affect the result of the game as so many blown calls have.