PADRES DROP TWO IN A ROW TO S.F.
It's becoming difficult to write anything interesting about the Padres because, well, they're just not an interesting team this season. After two frustrating losses to the Giants on Friday and Saturday, all you can do is look for positives and hope the club will make the necessary adjustments that will provide their loyal fans with a better brand of baseball next season.
In Friday's game, the positives were the starting pitching effort by Josh Banks, who lowered his ERA to 3.65, and the late inning homer by Adrian Gonzalez that tied the game. I have no clue how Banks fits in to the Padres' vision of the future, but I do believe that there's hope for him. If only he could show some consistency.
Mike Adams continues to impress out of the bullpen. Pitching a scoreless eighth inning on Friday, Adams lowered his ERA to 1.88. In 38 1/3 innings he's given up only 29 hits, struck out 45, and walked only 11. The Padres may have found another set-up guy for next year.
The lone positive in Saturday's 2-0 loss was Jake Peavy (8-7), who later expressed his frustration at losing another tough-luck decision. With an ERA of 2.59, Jake should be sitting on at least 12 wins right now.
A huge positive last night had nothing to do with the game. It was the Madres' silent auction. With over 41K fans in attendance (mostly for the T-shirt giveaway), their efforts were rewarded by the generous fans who shelled out some major coin for the merchandise displayed at four separate locations around the ballpark. Kudos to the women and men of the Madres for their successful endeavor!
On the minor league front, there were a couple of performances last night worth mentioning. LHP Matt LeBlanc (10-7) pitched 8 innings of shutout ball for Portland. While striking out 11 and walking none, he allowed only 2 hits. After getting off to a shaking start on the AAA level, LeBlanc appears to have found his groove and may have earned a September call-up.
Portland outfielder Pete Ciofrone banged out another 2 hits, including his 12th home run. His average is at .328. To put that in perspective, however, Paul McAnulty has batted .384 with 6 homers since being optioned to Portland.
A young player who's attracting a lot of attention lately is Lake Elsinore's Kellen Kulbacki. A corner outfielder, Kulbacki had 4 hits last night and raised his batting average to .344. He's got 19 home runs and a .611 slugging percentage. Although he's reported to be a lower-than-average defensive player, the 22-year-old will be put on the fast track if he continues to put up those kind of numbers.
It's already been quite a season. At this point, looking down at the minor league Padres seems to be more interesting than following the major league team. Some really nice stats for players down there -- maybe when the roster is expanded in Sept. we can see some of them up close and personal. With the big club, the high points are few and far between. I agree that Adams is a major positive. Jake Peavy deserves much better than his record shows. It's pure irony that poor Khalil had to take his frustrations out on that storage locker. I know he cares deeply about his playing ability (or lack thereof this season) and his frustration level final popped. Too bad it had to result in a broken hand. Hopefully, something good will happen that turns him around next year. Let's hope Rodriguez can do even an average job at shortstop. I have been angry with the Padres brass all season that they didn't retain Geoff Blum. A few more dollars and we would feel a whole lot better with a better bench and a solid fill-in for Greene. It was nice to see them take 1 of 3 from the Giants today. Pretty sad when Maddux had to get the first RBI for the team today. Good for Kooz to get another homer. And, Trevor.......I sure hope they bring him back next season. I heard him interviewed on the radio recently where he said his was a "lifer". I don't think he's ready to retire and the Padres shouldn't be so short-sighted as to let him either leave or retire prematurely. For the Padres as a whole, I guess there's always next season.
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If Trevor wants to come back, he will. I think he will stilll be able to get guys out consistently. I would love to have him back. If the team is going to get younger, we need that leadership. I hope they bring Giles back, too. But we'll have plenty of time to talk about next year during the offseason. It will be a long one.
For now, go Padres!
Kaybee (kaybee.mlblogs.com)
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