The San Diego Padres had two big innings on Monday night where they scored five and seven runs to beat the Colorado Rockies 15-8.  A five run sixth inning inning and then a huge seven run ninth inning fueld the Padres to the win in Denver as they kicked off a three game series with the Rockies.

Edgar Gonzalez went 4-5 with two home runs and three rbi in the game as he had a great night at the plate.  Jody Gerut had a three run home run in the ninth inning and also had a rbi in the sixth inning to finish the game with a team high four rbi.  Kevin Kouzmanoff added a solo home run and a rbi single as he had two rbi.  Brian Giles, Adrian Gonzalez, Khalil Greene, Michael Barrett, Tony Clark, and Craig Stansberry all chipped in with one rbi each as well.

Heath Bell improved his record to 6-3 as he recorded the win for the Padres after throwing the eighth inning.  Brett Tomko pitched a scoreless ninth inning to finish off the Rockies.  Greg Maddux had a bad game as he only lasted 4 2/3 innings after giving up eight hits and eight runs.  The Rockies hit Maddux hard, and Maddux was lucky that the Padres came back in the game so he didn’t get the loss.

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The San Diego Padres couldn’t get much going against the Minnesota Twins as they lsot 9-3 on Wednesday night and will now have to win on Thursday to avoid the three game sweep in the series.  The Padres had eight hits in the game compared to the Twins nine hits but the Padres were never able to get the big hits like the Twins did to score some runs.

Greg Maddux pitched the first 5 2/3 innings but gave up seven hits and seven runs.  Six of those seven runs were earned.  Maddux struck out three batters, walked two, and gave up one home run.  Maddux fell to 3-6 after taking the loss.

The Padres bullpen was pitching good until Mike Adams gave up two runs in the eighth inning on a Craigh Monroe home run.  Other then that, Carlos Guevara, Cla Meredith, and Justin Hampson pitched well out of the bullpen.

The Padres scored all three of their runs in the first two innings of the game and then were held scoreless the final seven innings.  Adrian Gonzalez grounded into a fielders choice but his little brother Edwin Gonzalez scored on the play in the first inning.  Later in the first inning, Kevin Kouzmanoff tripled and A. Gonzalez scored.  In the second inning Scott Hairston doubled and Michael Barrett scored for the Padres third and final run.

So will the Padres avoid the sweep and get a win on Thursday? Leave us a comment and let us know what you think!  Padres Bloggers

Wow, that wasn’t what you usually see out of Trevor Hoffman in the ninth inning.  Hoffman gave up back to back home runs to Brendan Harris and Brian Buscher and the Minnesota Twins defeated the Padres 3-1.  Tough loss for the Padres and you can only hope that they will bounce back from this and pick up a victory over the Twins on Wednesday.

Hoffman is now 1-5 after taking the loss in the game.  Padres starting pitcher Jake Peavy pitched six inning and allowed five hits and one run.  Peavy struck out six Twins batters and only walked one.  Bryan Corey pitched the seventh inning and Heath Bell pitched the eighth inning without getting into to much trouble.

Chase Headley had the only rbi for the Padres.  Headley grounded out in the seventh inning and Adrian Gonzalez scored.  The Padres struck out nine times and left 11 runners on base.  No wonder why they didn’t win this close ballgame.  They could never get a rally going and knock in that one or two runs like they should have.

The Padres will now try to even the series up on Wednesday.  I like their chances as Greg Maddux will take the mound.  Padres Blog

Jake Peavy was making his return to the starting rotation and things didn’t go as planned as the San Diego Padres lost to the New York Yankees 8-5.  Peavy only pitched four innings before being pulled.  He allowed six hits and four runs (three earned), while striking out four batters and giving up one home run.

All three Padre relief pitchers also gave up runs however so all the blame can’t be put on Peavy for this loss.  Bryan Corey and Cla Meredith both gave up one run while Justin Hampson gave up two runs.  Not going to win most games especially against the Yankees when your bullpen gives up four runs.

Brian Giles, Adrian Gonzalez, and Chase Headley all hit solo home runs in the game for the Padres.  The other two runs which came in the third inning came off the bat of Edgar Gonzalez who had a two run double to deep left center field.

The Padres will now try to avoid the sweep on Thursday.  It will be hard to do because the Yankees are playing some pretty good baseball right now.

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Jake Peavy was back on the mound for the San Diego Padres and everything went great as the Padres crused the Los Angeles Dodgers 9-0 on Thursday afternoon.  Peavy was on a pitch count so he only pitched the first seven innings of the game but he was pretty dominated as he only gave up three hits and struckout four batters.

Justin Hampson, Bryan Corey, and Mike Adams pitched the final three innings of the game and only gave up two combined hits.  Great job by the pullpen in finishing up the game.

At the plate, the Padres jumped all over the Dodgers with five runs in the first inning.  Brian Giles had a three run home run, Adrian Gonzalez a rbi single, and then Luke Carlin had a rbi ground out.  That all happened in the first inning!

The Padres just kept adding on runs as Carlin had a bases loaded walk in the third inning.  A. Gonzalez then had a rbi single in the seventh inning before Craig Stansberry singled in a run in the eight inning.  The Padres weren’t done yet though, Jody Gerut also had a rbi single in the ninth inning!

Talk about great pitching and great hitting up and down the lineup.  That is a butt kicking no matter which way you look at it!

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Randy Wolf and two relief pitchers limited the Los Angeles Dodgers to only five hits on Wednesday night as the San Diego Padres defeated the Dodgers 4-1.  Wolf pitched the first seven innings of the game and only gave up four hits and one run.  The one run came on a home run by Andy LaRoche in the fourth inning.

Wolf did a great job keeping the Dodgers off balanced as he struckout nine batters and only walked one in his seven innings of action.  Heath Bell pitched scoreless eight inning before he turned things over to Trevor Hoffman in the ninth inning who gave up on hit but recorded his 15th save of the season.

Edgar Gonzalez hit his first home run of the season in the first inning to get the Padres on the scoreboard.  Khalil Greene then hit a solo home run in the second inning to give the Padres a 2-0 lead.  In the third inning it was a Adrian Gonzalez rbi single that put the Padres up 3-0 and then in the seventh inning Jody Gerut had a rbi single for the fourth run of the game.  It was a balanced scoring effort by the Padres at the plate, and that is always great to see.

The Padres will play the Dodgers once more and it will be the rubber game of the series. The game will be Thursday afternoon, so get out to the ball park if you can and enjoy a great afternoon of Padres baseball!

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Pitchers duel at Petco helps Padres avoid sweep.  Greg Maddux was vintage this evening working his was through seven innings on 69 pitches.  Retiring the Cubs first nine batters in a row before allowing a hit in the 4^th inning. 

Ted Lilly had a solid showing allowing only two runs over 7 and 1/3 innings.  Lilly was using the spacious outfield at Petco to his advantage.  After allowing a solo HR to Scott Hairston (8) to lead off the game the Padres hit numerous deep drives that simply died in the outfield.  The Padres wouldn’t regain the lead until the bottom of the eight off of reliever Carlos Marmol (run was charged to Lilly). 

The Padres couldn’t seem to provide Maddux with enough run support again tonight.  On three occasions men were left standing at third waiting for a clutch hit to drive them in. 

Brian Giles reached base three times on this evening, hitting three deep drives to center, two which dropped in for doubles.  Giles did lead off the 8^th inning with one of those such drives.  Adrian Gonzalez was able to hit a deep fly ball to left center that was flagged down by Alfonso Soriano; Giles was able to tag up from second to third.  Kevin Kouzmanoff then hit a sacrifice fly to deep center scoring Giles from third and giving the Padres a 2-1 lead.

Trevor Hoffman came in to start off the 9^th sending Mike Fontenot and Soriano down on strikes before allowing a base hit to Ryan Theriot.  The go ahead run in Derrek Lee came up to bat however on this evening the Padres would not be denied as Trevor struck out Lee on that famous change up; giving Hoffman his 12^th save of the year and snapping the Cubs win steak at 9.

Josh Banks will try to cool off a hot New York Mets team that has won seven of it’s last 10.  The Padres will host the Mets in a four game series starting tonight.

 The MLB 2008 First-Year player draft will take place in Florida this afternoon.  The Padres will select 23^rd in the first round.  They also hold picks #42, #46, #69, #101 and #111 in the first three rounds. 

The machine known as the Chicago Cubs steam rolled the padres for a second straight night.  The padres jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the 3^rd. The first on an errant pick off throw by Jason Marquis, which allowed starting pitcher Wilfredo Ledezma to score from 3^rd base.  The second run coming on a two out single by NL RBI leader Adrian Gonzalez (55). 

The Cubs bounced right back in the 4^th as Alfonso Soriano led off with a double to deep left.  He would score on a fielders choice hit by Aramis Ramirez to cut the lead in half 2-1. 

The friars weren’t going down easy tonight though.  Paul McAnulty led off with a walk, followed by a single by Michael Barrett moving McAnulty to third.  Khalil Greene hit a sacrifice fly to center to score McAnulty to give Ledezma a two run lead to work with.

Ledezma was not able to follow up his impressive outing last week.  He walked five batters today including three in the 5^th inning.  Reed Johnson led off with a double, Ledezma then walked Mark DeRosa and Johnson stole 3^rd on ball four.  Ledezma was able to induce a ground out from Ronny Cedeno and struck out Jason Marquis.  It appeared that Wil would be able to escape the inning.  However, Ledezma threw a pitch that got by Barrett, the ball took a lucky bounce straight back to the catcher.  Barrett threw to Ledezma covering, Johnson stayed at third, however DeRosa assumed Johnson would break home and he was almost to third.  What appeared to be a gift of an out turned into nothing when Ledezma elected to fake a throw to second allowing both runners to get back into position.  That non throw would come back to hurt Ledezma, he walked the next batter Alfonso Soriano to load the bases and walked Ryan Theriot to allow a run and make it a 3-2 game.  Derrek Lee then hit a hard shot toward left to score DeRosa and would have also knocked in Soriano if it wasn’t for Khalil Greene’s diving save to limit Lee’s drive to one run tying the game 3-3.

The Cubbies struck again in the 6^th with two home runs of reliever off Brian Corey.  The first a solo shot from Geovany Soto (10) and the was followed by a two run shot by Mark DeRosa (6) making it a 6-3 Cubs lead.

In the 8^th the Cubs bats got hot again Ronny Cedeno singled, Mike Fontenot walked and Alfonso Soriano hit a monster three run homerun (14) onto the upper deck in left center to give the Cubs a 9-3 lead.

The Padres did show some heart in the 8^th Kevin Kouzmanoff led off with a walk followed by a single from Paul McAnulty, Greene then singled to load the bases for pinch hitter Tony Clark; he was able to draw bases loaded walk.  Bud Black then called in Edgar Gonzalez to pinch-hit, Edgar responded with a single to left scoring McAnulty and brining up the trying run in Tadahito Iguchi.  Iguchi was able to knock in Khalil Greene with on a fielders choice.  With two out and men on first and third, Brian Giles came up to bat.  With a full count and RBI leader Adrian Gonzalez on deck, Bob Howry was able to freeze Giles with a fastball for strike three to end the rally.

In the Padres ninth Adrian Gonzalez was able to hit a lead off double for his third hit of the evening, and the only extra base hit the Pads had all night.  That was all Cub closer Kerry Wood would allow as he retired the next three padres in a row for his 16^th save and the Cubs 9^th win in a row. 

The Padres will send future Hall of Fame pitcher Greg Maddux to the mound tomorrow to Face Ted Lilly in the series finale. 

Adrian Gonzalez made things interesting in the bottom of the ninth inning when he hit a three run home run off of Chicago Cubs relief pitcher Carlos Marmol.  Too bad for the Padres, that only got them to within one run, and Michael Barrett flew out to deep left field to end the game.  The Padres ended up losing to the Cubs by the score of 7-6.

Gonzalez led the Padres as he went 3-4 with four rbi in the game.  Gonzalez now has 17 home runs and 54 rbi on the season.  Kevin Kouzmanoff also had two rbi in the game for the Padres.  The Padres had jumped out to a 3-0 lead after the first inning, but the middle inning all belonged to the Cubs.

Cha Seung Baek fell to 1-1 on the season as he took the loss on against the Cubs.  Baek pitched 4 1/3 innings while giving up nine hits and four runs.  He was hit pretty hard, and in another ballpark, I’m sure the Cubs would have hit a couple of home runs off of him.  Justin Hampson pitched an inning of relief after Baek left the game and he gave up two quick runs.  After Hampson left, Mike Adams gave up one run while pitching 2 2/3 innings.  Carlos Guevara was finally able to pitch a scoreless ninth inning for the bullpen.

The Padres will try to slow down the Cubs who will be going for their ninth win in a row on Tuesday night.  It will be Wilfredo Ledezma and Jason Marquis taking the mound.

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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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