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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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.

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