Freedom

So after having my wife constantly ask me if I wanted anything to do with the sparklers we were lighting in celebration of the Fourth of July - and having her try numerous times to unsuccessfully spell words with her sparkler while shooting pictures in fireworks mode - I decided to show a little loyalty.



And then after coming home and seeing our boys battling in a close game, I have to say I was surprised to see Scott Linebrink do so well tonight (even though he gave up a hit). He got the first two batters out with relative quickness and ended up throwing only 11 pitches to 4 batters. I want to see Linebrink do well and it seems that SD has made its moves to improve the offense already so we should really be rooting for Linebrink to succeed. He could still eventually go, but the better his reputation is when he leaves the more we can get in return.

It was a shame Chris Young's gem wasn't rewarded with a win for him but I want to go on record and say he is probably the most underrated pitcher in baseball. Thursday's game will be critical to winning the series and it's great to see the only pitcher better than Young scheduled to start. Look for Jake Peavy to have one of his best performances of the season.

Flashback Friday: Trevor Hoffman

As Trevor Hoffman closes in on save No. 500 (he had 495 before Friday's game), I thought it would be fun to take a look at his first save, the one of the two he had as a member of the Florida Marlins, back on April 29, 1993.

As he has done so many times since then, Hoffman entered the game in the bottom of the ninth with the Marlins clinging to a one-run lead over the Braves. Atlanta had the top of its order up and Hoffman got off to a somewhat rocky start (apparently he has made his saves interesting since the beginning) by walking leadoff hitter Otis Nixon. But in true Hoffman form, he locked down the game, getting Jeff Blauser out on a sacrifice bunt that moved Nixon to second and then getting both Terry Pendleton and David Justice to fly out to left in consecutive at bats.

Hoffman saved the game for Luis Aquino and after picking up one more save and a 2-2 record he was traded to San Diego with Andres Beruman and Jose Martinez for and Gary Sheffield and Rich Rodriguez. While Beruman and Martinez did little for the Padres, the trade still came out somewhat even as San Diego got its closer for the next 13 (not including the season he missed due to injury) while Sheffield helped the Marlins win a World Series. Granted, I would take a World Series title over a solid closer, but Sheffield was not going to get us there.

Domination

Finally, the Padres make use of a 10 K day by Jake Peavy. Who would have guessed the Friars could lose 16 and 10 K games before finally taking down the Fish on Sunday on Peavy's third straight double-digit strike out performance.

This has got to be one of the great runs - at least by a Padres pitcher - in a long time and it's performances like these are keeping the Padres in the NL West race early on. It was also nice to see Cla Meredith bounce back after his tough performance Saturday, and if the starters and pen can keep things going, this may be a team that can find some postseason success.

The pieces seem to be here, the only problem is they haven't all been clicking at the same time. It's a good thing this is happening early this season though so that maybe by September they will figure out how to put it all together.

Let's hope Chris Young can keep this thing going against the Braves tomorrow.

Money's worth

Is it me or do the Padres seem to give fans more than they pay for at least once a week? At least this time they came out on top in the 12-inning affair down in Florida.

But this can't be good. We've already seen Kevin Towers send Justin Hampson down to Portland while his tired arm recover. And we've seen him recall Hampson four days later to fill the hole Clay Hensley left with his groin injury. We've also seen the bullpen go from stellar in April to average in May because of all of the innings those guys have had to throw between early exits and extra innings.

If the Padres are going to contend this year, they desperately need their pen to come through. But if every guy in the pen is going out every night to throw two innings because the Padres can't put anyone away in nine, the season will get very long, very fast.

But if there's one thing the pen can count on Sunday, it's that most of the guys will get to rest their tired arms as ace Jake Peavy takes the mound to close out the series against the Fish.

Linebrink's turn

I thought we had another win in the bag, and then Scott Linebrink took the mound. Normally Linebrink seems to be pretty reliable but he gave up back-to-back home runs? How often does that happen when you are in a position to close out the game?

Before that the Friars learned Clay Hensley would be shelved for awhile so now we have a potential hole in the rotation - if you don't count David Wells' erratic starts this year. But one positive from today ... Mike Cameron had a huge triple that should have been the game winner. It's May and so hopefully with the warm weather Cameron's and Kevin Kouzmanoff's bats will heat up.

Now we just need to get to Sergio Mitre tomorrow, but don't let the 0-2 record fool you, his ERA is under 4.00 and the Marlins seem to have a penchant for putting up runs. That in itself is amazing since most of these guys were rookies last year.

Quiet off day

Only two things to say on this off day.

1. I have added links to other blogs and Padres sites. One to definitely check out is at Ducksnorts, where I was involved in a roundtable discussion with other Padres bloggers and writers. We discussed the good, bad and ugly of the first month of the season.

2. According to Padres.com writer Corey Brock, Kevin Kouzmanoff is sticking around a while at third, even though Russell Branyan is back. Rumor was Kooz would be shipped off to Portland allowing Branyan to take over but apparently Kevin Towers and Bud Black are willing to ride out his slow start. I have been critical of Kouzmanoff in the early going but he looked like he was starting to get the hang of things against the Nationals and hopefully he can keep it going. Although, he was getting it together against the Nationals' staff, which doesn't exactly have the most dominating pitchers. But you have to turn your confidence on somewhere and the Nats seem like a good team to do that against.

Greg Maddux squares off against Dontrelle Willis and the Marlins tomorrow in what could be a good pitchers dual if Maddux can hit his spots.

More bad luck

Poor Clay Hensley. After struggling at the beginning of the year with a blister on his throwing hand, he left Wednesday's game in the third inning with a groin injury. Could your season start any worse?

Luckily for the Friars, they were able to overcome their early 1-0 deficit and beat the Nationals 7-3, thanks largely to a five-run fourth inning.

It was hard to think the Padres were going to lose this game, especially since they were facing Matt Chico, who demonstrated such command of a pitch earlier this year he made Rick Vaughn's first spring training performance in Major League look like the second coming of Nolan Ryan.

The win prevented the Nationals from winning their first series this year and helped the Padres enter their day off with a two-game winning streak. The Padres will be back to work Friday when future Hall of Famer Greg Maddux faces off against Marlins ace Dontrelle Willis. That should be quite a matchup.

Another game, another loss

Is it me or are a lot of the Padres games lately coming down to the last out or extra innings? After their 17-inning marathon Sunday, the Friars have fallen to fourth place in the NL West but are still one game above .500.

I don't think you can complain too much when the bullpen pitches 12 solid innings before giving up a single run, and I think the only thing to do here is to get excited for this week because it is just what a struggling team needs as the Padres face the Nationals for three games beginning Monday and the Marlins. If there is one way to get back on track, bringing Washington into town is about the best way to do it and I should know considering I live in Nationals country. An undefeated Jake Peavy facing a winless John Patterson should help too.