Shawn Estes has been close to perfect since being inserted back into the starting rotation.  However a wild 4^th inning seemed to doom him and the Padres.  In the top of the 4^th inning Estes seemed to loose control of his curve ball, with men on 1^st and 2^nd Estes threw two consecutive wild pitches followed by a third that hit batter Lastings Milledge loading the bases for Jesus Flores.  Flores jumped on a 1-2 fastball and sent it out of left field for a grand slam (2) and also giving the Nationals a 4-0 lead.

Odalis Perez seemed to have great control over the Padre lineup.  The Padres were able to hit the ball well, however well placed National players had no problem running down deep shots the warning track.  The Padres missed timely hitting stranding one runner in the first and two runners in the 3^rd inning.

In the 5^th inning Tadahito Iguchi was able to score Jody Gerut on a broken bat blooper however that would be the end of the scoring as Brian Giles was retired with two men on board.

Mike Adams came in to relief Estes in the 6^th and promptly gave up a solo home run to Lastings Milledge (3) giving the Nats a 5-1 lead.

In the 7^th the Nationals Felipe Lopez hit a double to center, Cristian Guzman singled to right and Aaron Boone was able to score Lopez on a sacrifice fly to give the Nats a 6-1 lead.

In the bottom of the 7^th inning the swinging friars came to life with Luke Carlin and Tony Clark hit back to back doubles to bring the Padres within range.  Scott Harriston was hitting the ball hard all night and connected for a two run homerun (7) scoring Clark and making the score 6-4.  Iguchi then singled to right and Adrian Gonzalez was hit by a pitch to bring the go ahead run in Kevin Kouzmanoff up to the plate.  However Nats pitcher Luis Ayala was able to hand Kouzmanoff his third strike out of the evening and putting to rest the Padres rally.

Ayala and Jon Rauch were able to sit down the last six Padre batters in a row to give the Nationals the 6-4 win.

Note: Justin Huber started in left field, however he was pulled after the first inning suffering from back spasms.

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In the first of a three game series against the visiting Washington Nationals, Randy Wolf put together yet another solid outing.  Wolf was hit hard in the first inning, giving up a two run home run to Aaron Boone.  Wolf was able to settle down after that and throw 5 scoreless innings, striking out five and not allowing a walk.

At the plate, the Padres hitters were patient.  Nationals starter Shawn Hill walked three consecutive Padres in the 3rd inning, loading the bases for Michael Barrett.  Barrett singled, driving in two runs to tie the game at two.

The game would stay tied until the 7th inning when Adrian Gonzalez came up to bat.  Gonzalez hit an opposite field home run (15) off Lefty Charlie Manning.  Kevin Kouzmanoff would follow that hitting a first pitch fast ball out of left field giving the Friars a 4-2 lead.

Heath Bell threw a scoreless 1 1/3 innings and held the lead for future Hall of Famer Trevor Hoffman.  Trevor had no problem with the National hitters, sitting them down one, two, three for his 10th save of the season and 534th career save. 

*As a note after the game, Channel 4 reported that Padres pitcher Jared Wells was traded to Seattle for pitcher Cha Seung Baek.

The San Diego Padres got off to a good start in a four game series against the Cincinnati Reds as they beat them 8-2 on Monday night.  The Padres got a great starting pitching performance out of Randy Wolf and then two home runs from Khalil Greene in the game.

Wolf tossed seven good innings to pick up the win and improve to 3-4 on the season.  Wolf only allowed four hits and two runs in the game.  Both runs came in the first inning when he made a mistake pitch to Ken Griffey Jr. who hit a two run home run.  Other then that, Wolf was pretty damn good on Thursday night!

Mike Adams came in and pitched the final two innings of the game and only allowed one hit.  Good job by Adams for getting the job done in the late innings.

Greene led the Padres at the plate with two home runs and two rbi.  Adrian Gonzalez and Kevin Kouzmanoff also had two rbi each in the game.  Gonzalez’s rbi’s came on a two run home run.  Brian Giles and Wolf both had one rbi as there was a lot if production up and down the Padres lineup against the Reds.

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Kevin Kouzmanoff hit a three run home run in the sixth inning to put the San Diego Padres ahead 3-2 and they made those three runs holds up as they beat the St. Louis Cardinals 3-2.  One swing of the bat by Kouzmanoff got the Padres the win even though the rest of the offense struggled at the plate.

Kouzmanoff had all three rbi for the Padres and now has 17 on the year.  The rest of the Padres offense sucked it up as they only had five other hits in the game besides the home run.  They need to swing the bat better so there isn’t so much pressure on the pitching staff.

Greg Maddux pitched five innings and gave up five hits and two runs to get the no decision.  Maddux gave up two runs in the second inning but then settled down for the most part.  Bryan Corey pitched two innings after Maddux exited the game to pick up the win.  Corey is now 1-0 on the season.

Heath Bell pitched a scoreless eighth inning before he turned things over to Trevor Hoffman who came in and recorded his ninth save of the season.

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Look no further then the four home run balls that the San Diego Padres pitchers gave up on Monday night as to why the Padres lost to the St. Louis Cardinals 8-2.  The Padres only used three pitchers in the game but all three gave up some gopher balls.

Starting pitcher Wilfredo Ledezma gave up two long balls as he took the loss.  Ledezma pitched four innings and allowed five hits and four runs.  Justin Germano then pitched the next two innings while giving up six hits and three runs including one home run.  Sean Henn pitched the final three innings of the game and gave up one run on a solo home run.

You can’t win a game when your pitching staff performs the way they did right there.  That is just terribe.

Adrian Gonzalez and Brian Giles both had one rbi at the plate for the Padres but it wasn’t even close to being enough.  The hitters didn’t perform that well at all against the Cardinals, but maybe they were out of it because the way the pitching staff performed. Who knows…

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The San Diego Padres were shutout by the Chicago Cubs 4-0 on Thursday afternoon as they lose three of four games to the Cubs in the series.  The Padres hitters simply had no answer for Ryan Dempster who handled them all day long.

Padres starting pitcher Greg Maddux had a terrible game as he was taken out of the game after only 4 1/3 innings as he gave up eleven hits and four runs.  A bad outing for Maddux who was making a return back to Chicago.  One bad inning was all it took for Maddux and Padres to lose all control of the game.

Brian Giles is really the only Padres batter we should blog about.  It appeared that he was the only player to want to play today as he recorded three of the six hits for the Padres.

The Padres will now play a three game series against the Seattle Mariners.  Padres Blog

The San Diego Padres and Chicago Cubs played in a high scoring game on Wednesday night but it was the Cubs that came out on top with a 8-5 victory.  The Cubbies scored early and often against Jake Peavy as he was knocked out of the game after only four innings of action.

Peavy took the loss as he pitched four innings and gave up seven hits and four runs.  Peavy got his pitch count up high early in the game as he was at around 50 pitches after the second inning.  The Cubs just hit him hard and often tonight.

Peavy wasn’t the only Padres pitcher that was hit hard however.  Wilfredo Ledezma gave up five this and three runs while Bryan Corey gave up two hits and one run.

Tadahito Iguchi led the Padres with two rbi and Khalil Greene had one rbi in the game.  The Padres did load the bases in the ninth inning off of Kerry Wood, but were on able to score one run as Brian Giles flied out to left field to end the game.

It just seemed like anytime the Padres scored a run to get closer, the Cubs would come back and score two more runs in the bottom of the inning.  The Padres will try to get a sweep in the series as the two teams play on Thursday.

Padres Homeplate is currently seeking a Padres fan that would like to write game recaps for the games.  Recaps can be done right after the game is over or the next morning.  If you are interested be us the contact us link at the top of the site to email us.

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The San Diego Padres evened the series with the Chicago Cubs as they beat the Cubs 4-3 on a cold rainy night at Wrigley Field in Chicago.  No runs were scored after the fourth inning, and all four of the Padres runs came in the fourth inning.  Before that they were down 3-0.

Khalil Greene had a two run home run to lead the Padres at the plate.  He took Cubs starting pitcher Jason Marquis deep.  Jody Gerut then doubled to score two more runs.  Those two hits were all the Padres would end up needing to win the game.

Shawn Estes pitched 5 1/3 innings to pick up the win which was his first of the season.  Trevor Hoffman pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning to get the save in the game.

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The San Diego Padres lost anything they had in the game tonight against the Chicago Cubs when they allowed six runs in the sixth inning and and then five more in the seventh inning.

The blowout happend in the sixth inning when the Cubs scored the six runs.  Kevin Kouzmanoff had a huge error in the game that allowed three runs in the game.  After that the floodgates just opened for the Cubs.

Randy Wolf dropped to 2-3 on the season as he only pitched four inning after allowing eight hits and seven runs.  Wolf walked five runs while giving up one home run in the game.

Sean Henn threw 1 2/3 innings and gave up three hits and five runs.  Only two of those five runs were earned, but still they were runs that crossed the plate.  Justin Germano tossed 2 1/3 innings of scoreless baseball to finish out the game.

Jody Gerut had a solo home run in the game for the one big hit for the Padres.  Tadahito Iguchi and Adrian Gonzalez’s little brother both had a rbi in the game.  It was the little brothers first major league hit as he was just called up.

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The San Diego Padres gave up four runs in the final four innings on Thursday as they lost to the Atlanta Braves 5-4.  With the four run rally, the Braves swept th Padres in their three game series.

Joe Thatcher took the loss for the Padres as he gave up three his and a run in the bottom of the ninth inning.  Thatcher is now 0-4 on the season and needs to start throwing the ball better before he sees his butt on the bench for every game.

The other four runs by the Braves were all un-earned as the Padres had three errors in the game.  Starting pitcher Wilfredo Ledezma allowed one run, Shawn Estes allowed two runs, and Cla Meredith allowed one run.

Kevin Kouzmanoff had two rbi for the Padres as he led them at the plate.  Scott Hairston and Khalil Greene both had one rbi in the game as well.  The Padres just weren’t productive with runners on base as they left 18 runners on base in the game.

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