Tagged: Marlins

Ludwick, Tejada and the Dodgers!

A very interesting weekend for the Padres ended with a nice 5-4 win. On Thursday, when we walked-off against the Dodgers, we were all wondering whether Jed Hoyer was going to make a move before the deadline after all, and we were debating whether that would be a good or bad thing.

Today, three days later, we have acquired a veteran in Miguel Tejada who is 10 months removed from a 199-hit season and an All-Star berth and a second power threat in Ryan Ludwick that will help protect Adrian Gonzalez.

I was thrilled to hear about both acquisitions, especially Ludwick, for several reasons. First, it’s an awesome feeling in general to know the Padres are finally in a position to add to the team, not subtract. Second, both players have reputations as great players who know how to play the game and who give 100% every day. And finally, these acquisitions inject much-needed potential for offense into our lineup, which (as much as I love the Padres), before this weekend, really scared nobody.

Even better, both men have began to produce from day one. Though Tejada is still without a hit in his first 5 Padres at-bats, he has walked twice and made it count, scoring both times. Ludwick smacked a solid single in his first at-bat (pinch-hitting too!), and scored what ended up being the winning run in the game.

I look forward to more great performances by both of them, and I’m antsy to see who we can pick up from waivers in the next month. Hopefully another good starting pitcher. If we do so, I think we’ll have a great chance at a deep playoff run! The home stretch of the season is upon us- we started it off yesterday on the right foot beating Florida, now let’s knock LA out of the race for good over the next 4 days!!!

Padres Complete the Sweep!

The Padres completed their first sweep since June 25-27 against the Florida Marlins and their first sweep at home since April 19-21 against the San Francisco Giants today against the Arizona Diamondbacks with a very solid 6-4 win.

The Padres have begun the 2nd half of the season on full cylinders! During this series, everything clicked. Though the starting pitching had its shaky moments, the bullpen was, as always, money, keeping the Padres in the game when it was behind in the second game, and making sure the Padres kept the lead when they had it.

The defense as always was excellent- only one error by Clayton Richard which didn’t even lead to a run. But what really excited me about the last 3 games was that the offense woke up in this series! The Padres scored 26 total runs during the series, including 12 runs in the opening game. The Padres recorded no fewer than 8 hits in each game, and were making timely hits with runners in scoring position, leaving uncharacteristically few men on base.

The Padres played adeptly in all aspects of the game during this series, and while the team they swept was the Arizona Diamondbacks, who are already practically out of contention, it’s a good sign for what’s to come.

Two quick notes-

1. Everth Cabrera and Arizona’s Mark Reynolds got into a minor scuffle that cleared the benches late in today’s game. The replays showed that both players made actions to provoke the other, but only Cabrera was ejected. While I don’t feel it was inappropriate to eject Cabrera, if you eject him, you have to eject Reynolds too for his involvement. If anything, Reynolds was attempting to escalate the situation.

2. I was very pleased with the attendance figures for this series. While these were games against a division rival, it is the weak link in the division and I expected maybe figures in the mid-20k range max during any individual game. The results? 33k in the opener, 40k (!) in the middle game, and finally 25k at today’s Sunday afternoon game for a grand total of 98k during the series. This is great! Start coming out and supporting your Padres! Petco, already one of the best parks in the majors, is an even better experience when you’re sharing it with 40,000 other fans!

Now the Padres head out for a very important series against the Braves. The Padres who have the only winning road record in the NL, are facing the majors most successful team at home. This will be a test of how good our team really is! Then a quick trip to Pittsburgh, and the Pads come back for what is sure to be a memorable set of games against the Dodgers… and I will see you there!