One for the record books

In case you have been under a rock or nowhere within the distance of a TV with ESPN, Trevor Hoffman finally got save No. 500 last night.

What was more impressive to me though was what happened before Hoffman's bells rang. I was amazed to see how efficient Greg Maddux was, even though he left in a jam in the seventh inning, throwing only 71 pitches. And even though he left in the seventh with one out, Luis Gonzalez on base and a home run having been given up to Jeff Kent, Heath Bell was even more efficient than Maddux, throwing two pitches and getting Russell Martin to ground into a double play. The rest was gravy, even though Hoffman gave us our usual heart attack by letting Nomar Garciaparra double to lead off the inning.

What has me even more stoked than Wednesday's win, though, is the fact that Jake Peavy is on the mound tonight for the rubber match and the series sweep. San Diego was tied with the Dodgers heading into the series, now let's see if they can get some more distance from them in the NL West race.

Taking notice

Jake Peavy's resurgence and dominance on the mound is finally getting noticed. Apparently the Padres have a friend at ESPN in Jerry Crasnick, who also just recently wrote about Trevor Hoffman and his quest for save No. 500. It's nice to see someone other than the Yankees and Red Sox getting coverage from ESPN.

Waterlogged

Well, the Padres lucked out again, this time winning in the rain after letting the Nationals come back to tie them. This series against the Nationals should not have been this hard and Jake Peavy should not have lost on Friday.

David Wells is starting to worry me with his up-and-down outings and that shot Ryan Zimmerman hit off him in the third was huge, landing in the upper deck of cavernous RFK. The lineup was devoid of most of the starters but the pen came through so I guess it's good to have something we can usually count on.

Now we get the Dodgers with Chris Young taking the hill first. This should be a spectacular series, especially with our best pitchers taking the hill. So let's gear up for a great series and hope we come out on top.

Lou's got nothing on him

I will post later about the game, but this video is classic and has to be shared with the world. This is about the only thing that can overshadow a Lou Piniella tirade or Bobby Cox breaking the ejection record (which has no official stat by the way). Enjoy Phillip Wellman, a minor league manager in the Braves system.

What should have been

The Padres score six runs in the first against a guy with an ERA over 8.00; Justin Germano's ERA balloons to 1.74 and the Padres easily defeat a team whose pitching staff is not quite ripe. This is what should have happened when I was at the game last night but of course they wait until the next day to completely trounce the Nationals.

I didn't see any of the game because I was working but anytime you can build a big enough lead to easily win a game in the first inning, it seems like it's a good night.

In the battle of who can get their ERA to 5.00 first, David Wells (2-3, 4.74) takes on Jason Simontacchi (2-3, 5.28), who remarkably is one of the few Nationals starters that is actually healthy.

Go Padres, let's get 2 out of 3.

Note: Because of my crazy schedule, Flashback Friday is not yet posted. I will try to get it up sometime in the next day or two ... or at least before next Friday (ha ha).

Corruption of the Young

So I just got back from the game and while it seemed there were a ton of San Diego fans in attendance, we definitely didn't get what we were looking forward too with Jake Peavy on the mound. Granted, he went seven innings and had seven strikeouts but he was far from sharp, giving up 10 hits and looking really erratic again in the first inning.



But on the bright side, I got to take my daughter and son to their first baseball game, and if this photo is any indication, maybe my daughter will grow up rooting for the right team.



Oh well, here's to hoping David Wells can get us on track Saturday. I still can't believe we lost to the Nationals.

Welcome to Washington

I'm stoked that the Padres won Thursday in extra innings, especially since it was on back-to-back HR's by Mike Cameron and Josh Bard in the 11th, but what is even more exciting is the fact that I get to finally see the Padres in person this year.

And what makes this even more exciting is that Jake Peavy's start got moved up and now I will get to see him pitch instead of Justin Germano Friday. Peavy and the Padres should be able to easily dispose of the Nats and Matt Chico, who has been thrashed in the local media here, as well as most of Washington's pitching.

So hopefully we will get our second series sweep of the season this weekend and stay in first place in the NL West.