Turning The San Diego Padres Luck Around (The Show ’15)

[enyc718]

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With ten games deep…..well maybe not that deep right…..I just want to go around the league to see what’s happening. It won’t be much, maybe cover injuries, our minor leaguers, stats and such…..



A quick tidbit on our start to this season…..SCORING EARLY. Went through a stretch of three games, all wins (1 vs LAD and 2 vs ARI) where we scored early and were able to knock the opposing pitcher out of the game.

Zach Greinke – Lasted just 4 IP and scored 5 runs on him in the first four innings

Archie Bradley – Lasted only 3.1 IP

Jeremy Hellickson – Lasted 4.1 IP where we only scored three runs but patience was the key at the plate for us as he issued 6 walks to us.

This is a big reason thus far for the quick start and what has propelled us to first place.





Quick look at one of our Draft Picks from last year that we talked about before the season started, 1B Erick Castro. So far scouts have been right about the youngster, he has been tearing it up in AAA. Lets’ look at some of his numbers:

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On the injury front. Luckily, no injuries for us. Hopefully it stays that way since it’s a very long season. Let’s look at other key injuries around baseball.

MLB Injuries through april 13 2016.PNG

One thing to point out…the Boston Red Sox….HOLY CRAP they have a lot of injuries. Besides the ones you see above, OF Mookie Betts and SP Wade Miley are out for some time too….talk about the ‘injury bug’. Even through all that, they sit in first place in the AL East with a record of 7-3. Rusney Castillo was having himself a nice start: In 35 AB so far, .429 BA // 4 HR // 8RBI // 15 H // 4 SB in 4 chances.



The San Francisco Giants made plenty of moves this winter and one of them is not panning out, granted it’s only the first ten games of this long season. The Giants signed Clay Bucholz who should still have some gas left in tank. As the Giants aim to dominate and bolster their pitching with experience Bucholz has struggled so far…..his numbers: 0-2 // 13 IP // 6.92 ERA // 10 K // 6 BB…..Bucholz has also been throwing meatballs as hitters are hitting .400 against him ( .368 vs RH // .455 vs LH) and WHIP of 2.31. OUCH!!

We actually play the Giants in our next series for 4 games and Bucholz is likely to pitch that last game. Tyson Ross will be aiming for his third win in that game.

[enyc718]

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Series #4


After taking two of three from the San Francisco Giants in the series opener of the season, and now with a half game lead on them, we squared off for four more games, this time in San Diego.

We discussed our offense getting a jump with early runs in the past few games. That wasn’t the case in this series, although we did score four runs in the third inning of the first game against Jake Peavy. But rather our batters have been working the opposing pitchers enough that in this series, Giants arms did not go past the sixth inning.

Jung Ho Kang got the start at shortstop in game 1 and homered twice. Strasburg did his part in game one also as he went eight strong innings, with 2 ER // BB // 7 K.

Jake Peavy didn’t go past five innings, Madison Bumgarner pitched six frames, Matt Cain pitched six and Clay Bucholz went for five innings in this series. The surprise was Bumgarner. We did not let the big lefty dominate us. Again our patience has been on display as of late. We worked the at-bats and made Bumgarner issue out 6 walks.

Andrew Cashner took the mound against Bumgarner in game 2 and pitched stellar. He gave up three runs but they were all unearned runs all while striking out eight and walking two. Cashner improved to 2-1 and even had a good day at the plate by going 2-3 and scoring a run. Kimbrel also got the save.

In game three of the series Jedd Gyorko and Derek Norris provided the power as we beat the Giants once again, 4-2. Gyorko and Norris each hit 2-run homeruns. Corey Luebke got the no no decision in this one but put in a quality start for sure: 7 IP // 1 ER // 3 BB // 8 K, Kimbrel was a factor once again, this time getting credit with the win.

In the finale, we faced off against Clay Bucholz and again we beat him. That’s twice this month. Another good outing by Tyson Ross as he starts 3-0: 7 IP // 5 H // 1 ER // 3 BB // 4 K……Craig Kimbrel shuts the door to complete the four game sweep with his fourth save of the season.

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Around the League:
Not good for the Boston Red Sox…..Yet ANOTHER injury, this time to starting pitcher and free agent signing of Josh Collmenter…He’s out 3-4 weeks with an Inflamed Hip. Collmenter has posted a record of 2-0 // 1.90 ERA // 18 K……..How are the Red Sox doing it??? Still sitiing in first place in the AL East.

Also in a rarity….How many times does a team pitch a one-hitter and STILL lose the game 1-0??? That’s right, New York Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard pitched a one-hitter against the Atlanta Braves but came out on the losing end 1-0.

[Number999]

Quote:

Also in a rarity….How many times does a team pitch a one-hitter and STILL lose the game 1-0??? That’s right, New York Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard pitched a one-hitter against the Atlanta Braves but came out on the losing end 1-0.

I can't find it right now, but I saw a stat a couple days ago that for the 2016 MLB Season teams throw a 1-hitter are only 3-3 thus far! Crazy! But hey I guess it's realistic since that's some classic Mets run support!

[enyc718]

Quote: Originally Posted by Number999

I can't find it right now, but I saw a stat a couple days ago that for the 2016 MLB Season teams throw a 1-hitter are only 3-3 thus far! Crazy! But hey I guess it's realistic since that's some classic Mets run support!

Well, you made me look it up out of curiosity.....


http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/po...g-with-one-hit


And yes, as a Mets fan, I know all about the lack of run support....it's so ridiculous sometimes.

[enyc718]

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Series #5

We headed back home to San Diego to try to improve our 11-3 record. The Colorado Rockies were in town and came in with a 4-8 record themselves. We also came into this series winning 8 straight games…

All three starting pitchers for the Rockies that we were facing for this series were sporting ERA’s over 5.73……John Lackey was still winless on the season and came in striking out 12 and walking only 2 so far…

The first game was scoreless through five innings until in the bottom of the sixth, after a Justin Upton double advanced Wil Myers to third, Yonder Alonso singled to right to give us the 2-0 lead.

The two runs were all we were going to need for the night as Lackey was cruising all game long. He even had a no-hitter going until David Dahl broke it up in the top of the 8th inning. Lackey pitched a complete game for us….Lackey’s final line: CG // 2 H // 1 R // 1 ER // 3 BB // 7 K



In game two Stephen Strasburg got the nod with the chance to put our win streak at 10 games but Asher Wojciechowski had something different in mind. Wojciechowski pitched great against us and Strasburg was all over the place in this game.

Troy Tulowitzki got things going for the Rockies in the top of the fourth with a bases clearing double. Colorado tagged Strasburg with seven runs, six of them earned….Strasburg was pulled in the 5th after giving up a leadoff single.

We didn’t get on the board until the bottom half of the 8th when Alexi Amarista tripled and then scored on a wild pitch to make it 7-1. We would go on to score two more runs but that’s as far as the comeback would go…

Strasburg’s final line was ugly which also saw his ERA rise to 4.61: 4 IP // 5 H // 7 R // 6 ER // 1 BB // 4 K.



It came down to the rubber match to see if we were going to win another series. This game we turned to Andrew Cashner who was 2-1 so far.
Andrew Cashner got himself into an early bases loaded jam in the second inning with no outs but was able to get out of it.

Yonder Alonso hit his first homerun of the year, a solo shot to give us the 1-0lead……Justin Upton followed that up with a solo homerun in the very next inning, his second of the year and it was 2-0 for the good guys…….

Cashner through 4 had allowed a baserunner in all four innings…….After DJ LeMahieu stole second in the fifth, Nolan Arenado doubled to right field to cut our lead to one.

Bottom of the sixth we stretch the lead to 5-1 as we used a nice rally with no outs to gets some more runs…

Out went Cashner in the eighth and in came Jeff Frasor and boy was that a mistake…………after giving up a run to make it 5-2, Alex Avila unloads a shot to left field…a 3-run shot and it ties the game up at five.

We had a chance in the bottom of the eighth with 1 out and runners on the corner but Jung Ho Kang struck out and Derek Norris followed that up with a ground out.

We stayed tied after nine so to extras we went……Matt Thornton was now pitching for us and gives a leadoff homerun in the top of the tenth to Wilson Rosario. Rockies tagged on one more before getting their closer to shut the door in the game and this series.

Everyone had a hit for us except the catcher and pitcher but we just didn’t execute with runners on when we had the chances……Cashner pitched well enough to get the win but charge this loss to Matt Thronton…even though it was Jeff Frasor that couldn’t hold the lead in the eighth inning.


We lose our first series of the year with a 12-5 record….still good for first place in the West and a 2.5 game lead on the Arizona Diamondbacks which we play next and they just finished sweeping the Los Angeles Dodgers.

After the game the Colorado Rockies activated RF Carlos Gonzalez.

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[enyc718]

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Series #6

We stayed west as went to Arizona who we just finished sweeping a few days back. Arizona was hanging on to our coat tails in the NL West….What are the odds that we would have the same pitching matchups that we did in our first series against Arizona???

We scored 4 runs in the second inning, three of them on a 3-run triple from catcher Derek Norris. Archie Bradley only lasted 4 innings and twice we have beaten him. Bradley’s record is now 1-3.

Corey Luebke got the win in game one for us. We got a complete game out of him and on his 110th pitch of the game he struck out Wilmer Flores to end the game. Luebke final line: CG // 6 H // 0 ER // 2 BB // 8 K and lowered his ERA to 1.22 (2-1 on the season)….

Matt Kemp had two doubles and Justin Upton is struggling, batting a measley .148


Around The League

SP John Danks (CWS) was placed on the DL and is done for the season with a Torn Labrum….he was 0-2 with a 9.00 ERA.

OF Michael Conforto (NYM) is out for 1-2 months with a Shoulder Tear…..he’s also been struggling down in AA batting .187



In the next game Justin Upton got us on the board in the first with an RBI single…..maybe this gets Upton going. But in the bottom of the first Ender Inciarte hits the first pitch he sees from Tyson Ross to tie the game at one.

Tyson Ross came into this game with a record of 3-0. Ross gives up a 2-run homer to David Peralta in the bottom of the third. Ross was a little shaky throughout this one and the offense a bit stagnant through the first six innings….

BUT in the top of the seventh inning we grew patient…..Austin Hedges doubles….then Yonder Alonso bunts for a single. Matt Kemp followed with a walk to load them up…….We mentioned earlier if Upton’s RBI single would get him going and boy did he confirm it did….A GRAND SLAM for Justin Upton and we now led 5-3!!!

A miscue by Arizona in the top of the ninth with two outs and the bases loaded allows another run to be scored, it’s now a 6-3 lead for us…

BUT it wasn’t over yet……Ender Inciarte hits a solo shot off of our closer Craig Kimbrel in the ninth but Kimbrel gets the next batter to ground out for the third out and his fifth save of the season.

James Russell got his second hold of the game (1.1 IP // 3 K and keeps his ERA at zero…….Tyson Ross final line: 6.2 IP // 6 H // 3 R // 3 ER // 4 BB // 6 K// 2.05 ERA// 4-0 record…….



In the finale, we got up two runs to nothing in the third inning thanks to a 2-run homerun by Wil Myers. Our defense also held up twice in back to back innings.

In the second inning Matt Kemp threw Mark Trumbo out at the plate to end the innings. And then in the third inning, Justin Upton shows off his arm as well, even though he threw out a much slower runner, the pitcher, Rubby de la Rosa, at the home also.

The Diamondbacks got one run back in the sixth on a Wilmer Flores RBI single.


Key Moment of the game: With 2 outs Buck Showalter decides to have John Lackey issue an intentional walk pinch hitter Paul Goldschmidt, who was batting for the pitcher……IT BACKFIRED!! Ender Inciarte made sure of that by blasting a homerun to right field and give the Diamondbacks a 3-2 lead…..

Lackey was having an okay game up to that point but was showing signs of getting tired.

Addison Reed shut the door us. Ender Inciarte had himself a series against us…Here are his numbers: 5-7 // 5 R // 4 RBI // 2 BB // 3 HR // 2B // SB…

Either way two out of three is not bad of course. Lackey in the final game was not great and dropped to 1-1….6.2 IP // 8 H // 4 R // 4 ER // 3 BB // 4 K // 3.13 ERA

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[enyc718]

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Series #7


We keep winning…whether a sweep or two out of three, we’re kind of rolling right now and we’re not going to get too high as April is not even over yet but it’s definitely a good start.


Now we look to revenge our only series loss of the year against the Colorado Rockies. The Rockies just finished taking two out of three from the Dodgers. We sit at 14-6 and four games up on the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Stephen Strasburg took the mound in the opener and there was a milestone to be reached. Strasburg would hit strike out number 1,000 in the bottom of the seventh. He had 11 strikeouts through six innings and it was quite the dominant performance that we were looking for when we acquired Strasburg.

We had to score runs and Matt Kemp provided some. Kemp hit two homeruns. In the top of the first he hit a 2-run shot, hit seventh of the year and later again in the top of the seventh, this time a solo homerun. At this point it was already a 6-0 lead for us.

Strasburg also contributed at the plate with two singles. He entered the ninth having thrown 108 pitches. He walked the very first batter and Showalter pulls him for Joaquin Benoit. Benoit comes in and strikes out the next 3 batters.

But the highlight reel was Strasburg: 8 IP // 1 H // 5 BB // 16 K // 108 pitches // 3-2, 3.51 ERA. The only concern I see with Strasburg at this point are his walks total but he is so good that in todays case……the 16 strike outs and the lone hit he gave up make up for the five walks.

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In game 2 the Rockies got on the board in the third inning to take a 1-0 lead..Eddie Butler was dominating us through five innings…..and it wasn’t until the sixth when Yandervis Solarte doubled to score Justin Upton and Yonder Alonso, Solarte’s 7th double of the season gave us the 2-1 lead. We went on to score one more in the inning…..

We go into the bottom of the ninth where we led 3-2 at this point. Jeff Frasor had pitched the seventh and eighth innings and the ball got turned over to Craig Kimbrel with a 1-run lead…..

Alex Avila doubled to right with one out. Next batter Curtis Granderson is sat down swinging on a filthy knuckle-curve from Kimbrel. Very next batter Nick Hundley singles to right field, Melvin Upton giving Matt Kemp the rest today comes up throwing to home….Alex Avila is running towards home and without a bounce Derek Norris catches the ball and applies the tag for the game ending play….


Cashner gets the win….6 IP // 5 H // 2 R // 2 ER // 3 BB // 2 K………Thronton and Frasor with the hold and Kimbrel notched his sixth save of the season.

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Our M.O. so far has been scoring runs early but in the third game versus the Rockies we had to come from behind. Two late runs in this one…..One in the eighth and another in the ninth inning.

The offense also bailed out Corey Luebke who exited the game losing it. Luebke final line: 6 IP // 4 H // 2 R // 2 ER // 3 BB // 8 K….Our 1-7 hitters all had atleast one hit in this game.

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We get to rest up on Thursday with an off day and head into a 10-game homestand: (3)HOU, (3)LAD, (4)ATL…..Of those teams, only the Houston Astros has a winning record and not to mention the best pitching staff in baseball right now.

I’ll play the series against Houston and dive into a quick review of a ‘Month End’

[enyc718]

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Series #8



Home for 3-games to close out the month of April against the best pitching staff in baseball right now, the Houston Astros. The Astros have 3 of the top 10 pitchers in ERA.

This series would be a good measure for how our offense would respond to good pitching. But we’re no slouches on the mound either and the Houston Astros were going to have to find ways to get it going against our very own Tyson Ross who was looking for his 5th win in the month of April.

And boy did the Astros find out the hard way. Tyson Ross pitched magnificent and the offense did enough with 6 runs to win the first game at home. Ross’s final pitching line: 7.2 IP // 4 H // 1 R // 1 ER // 3 BB // 9 K // 1.85 ERA……Ross has really stepped up from last year in his first 5 starts.

Another good sign in this game for us was Justin Upton hitting a 3-run homerun, he is finally starting to show signs of heating up. Upton added another RBI off of a single in the bottom of the seventh. He finished 3-4 and scored 3 runs…

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John Lackey took the mound in game two and was looking for a bounce back start. He would fce off against Astros pitcher Scott Feldman who is 3-1 and with a 1.75 ERA.

We were up to our usual tricks in the bottom of the first as Matt Kemp hit a solo HR, his ninth of the season. Kemp also saved a run in top of the second by throwing out Chris Carter at the plate.

Up 2-0 in the top of the fifth, with Lackey scattering hits but leaving runners stranded, it was a matter of time before the Astros were able to score. Lackey loaded up the bases after giving up a leadoff single earlier to Scott Feldman…..Then he walked in a run, Altuve scores…Jake Marisnick followed up with a single to CF, Luis Valbuena and Charlie Blackmon score and the Astros take a 3-2 lead…….Two batters later Jason Castro singled to right and just like that we were down 4-2….

Derrick Norris led off for us in the bottom of the fifth with a walk…..On a questionable decision, Lackey bunts with two strikes but luckily he reaches first on an infield single….Norris advanced to second.

After Alonso grounds out into a force at second and Wil Myers pops out to the catcher…..Matt Kemp answers the call with a 3-run blast to LF, his second HR of the day to give us the 5-4 lead….Justin Upton responded right after with a homerun of his own, his ninth of the year and BOOM!....the offense bails out our starter once again and the pen holds up……Kimbrel got the night offas Nick Vincent got his fourth Hold of the year and lefty specialist James Russell got his first save of the season.

Both Vincent and Russell have ERA’s of ZERO!! Lackey gets his record to 2-1.

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Our third and final game of the series vs the Houston was a breeze. Stephen Starsburg made things easy for us by going eight strong innings. This after that dominant 16 strikeout game 5 days ago.

Strasburg’s final line: 8 IP // 5 H // 1 R // 1 ER // 4 BB // 10 K // 3.04 ERA….

When it’s not Kemp, it’s Upton or in this game it was Yangervis Solarte that provided the pop in the first inning….Solarte hit a GRAND SLAM that drove in Alonso, Kemp and Upton…..We scored 4 runs on 2 hits in the first.

Solarte’s final line: 2-4 // 1 R // 4 RBI // 2B // 6-game hitting streak. We are the first team to 20 wins in the majors this season.

This was a good test for us or maybe the Astros are just really not that good and playing a little over their heads right now…..Or maybe we are too???

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This last game took us into the month of May.....so I will be doing a monthly overview of April...