Padres Report - September 7th

Padres’ Report – September 7, 2006

The Mets cut down the Dodgers 7-0 and Philly handled the Fish 14-8…

The Padres are now one-half game behind the Dodgers in the West and hold a 2.5 game advantage over Philly in the Wild Card (the Marlins and Giants are 3.5 games back)…

With game 1 of the 4-game set in the books (Way to go Mets!), the two teams send out the following starters in the final three games:

Hong-Chih Kuo (5.34, 0-4) vs. John Maine (3.44, 5-3)
Greg Maddux (4.36, 12-12) vs. Orlando Hernandez (5.15, 9-10)
Mark Hendrickson (4.41 5-15) vs. Steve Trachsel (5.02, 14-6)

If I’m a betting man (and I’m not) I’d wager that the Mets would win games 2 & 4 and the Dodgers would win behind Mad Dog in game 3.

While the Dodgers (30-39 on the road) sweat it out in New York, the Padres get another chance to exact some revenge on the Giants (Giants lead the series 6-10). The Padres and Giants are sending out the following starters:

Jake Peavy (4.32, 8-13) vs. Matt Cain (4.11, 11-9)
David Wells (4.58, 2-3) vs. Jason Schmidt (3.39, 11-8)
Woody Williams (3.91, 7-5) vs. Brad Hennessey (3.72, 5-4)

Based on ERAs and win-loss records (not to mention head-to-head record) the Giants appear to have a distinct advantage. But in Peavy’s last eight starts he has allowed 2, 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 0, 5, and 1 earned run and he pitched 7+ innings in 6 of those 8 games… And David Wells, the noted big game pitcher, like Peavy, has been pitching well of late (2, 2, and 1 ER in last 3 starts). Pitching in Sunday night’s ESPN game, Woody has the best ERA of the three Padres starters but is the least likely to strike fear into the hearts of opposing batters.

I do think the Padres win the series, but I won’t predict which games like I did in the Mets-Dodgers series… If we do win the series and if the Dodgers do lose 2 out of the remaining 3 the Padres will be division leaders on Monday morning.

On to the report…

Hitters:

Hi-A – Nick Hundley --- 2-4; HR (1), R, RBI, SO
Hi-A – Tim Brown --- 2-4; 2B (2), R
Lo-A – Mike Sansoe --- 3-5; R, 2 SO
Lo-A – Will Venable --- 3-5; 2B (1), R
Lo-A – David Freese --- 2-4; 2 2B (2), R, 2 RBI, BB

Pitchers:

Hi-A – Manny Ayala --- 6.1 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 SO, 0 HR
Lo-A – Wade Leblanc --- 5.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 7 SO, 0 HR
Lo-A – John Madden --- 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 SO, 0 HR

Commentary:

Unfortunately, Lake Elsinore couldn’t wrap up their playoff series Thursday night. Manny Alaya pitched a heck of a game and Hundley and Brown did their best, but the rest of the offense came up short. Tomorrow will be the game 3 finale.

Starting pitcher Wade Leblanc, and Sansoe, Venable, and Freese said, “Not on our watch.” The 2-3-4 hitters led Fort Wayne to a 4-0 win over West Michigan (Detroit) going a combined 8-for-14 and evening the series 1-1. As with Lake Elsinore, the finale is tomorrow.