Tag Archives: nlds

The Padres live to see another game!

The Padres put together a three-run fourth to put them in the lead and ahead for good to stay alive for at least one more game in the National League Division Series by beating the Cardinals 3-1 at Busch Stadium.

Quick observations: Chris Young is a stud pitcher, unbelievable on the road, and was every much the stopper San Diego needed. The Padres got to Hoffman to get the game closed out, which is their formula for success. By the way, Dave Roberts is still the most consistent player on the team on offense. He has been pretty much unstoppable, though the rest of the Padres’ bats needed to rise to the occasion more. In the fourth, they did, but there were two other wasted opportunities in the first and the fifth. In the fifth they stranded the bases loaded, and didn’t even get a run…they got away with that bigtime today.

We’ll see how it goes tomorrow…it’s pretty likely it’ll be Peavy vs. Carpenter again, as the break in the series permitted them to get their normal four days of rest.

Gotta run — later folks!

J

Friday Night. Live…on the INTERNET(S).

So it’s Friday night — and I’m on the Internet(s). See, I could probably have gone out if I wanted to. I’ve been a smidgen under the weather the last few days, but today marked a significant improvement on that front. As my trusty friend Chris would say, I could be out looking at “Broken Wings” (a term that we [we being my work friends and I] generally use to refer to amazing-looking women) rather than listening to it (i.e. the Mr. Mister song, from which this signal is derived). However, in the name of saving my pocketbook and my liver, I’ve decided to remain indoors tonight and play here. Continue reading →

Never underestimate the power of a missed foul ball…

…because had Mike Piazza been able to catch up to Albert Pujols’s foul ball (which took a weird hop off the net and got lost in the sun to boot — I’m not going to put too much on him for it), he would never have had a shot at hitting a home run off Jake Peavy to put the Cardinals up for good.

I like Jake Peavy’s intensity on the mound, but he gets into this mode where he feels he has to strike everybody out, and that really came back to haunt him today. After giving up the Pujols home run, he was clearly upset, and started forcing pitches over the plate. With the Pujols spark, the rest of the Cardinals lineup started hitting, and that really was that for San Diego, as they fell 5-1 in the first game of the National League Division Series.

The bullpen — including Chan Ho Park — did a good job of holding down the damage, and Dave Roberts was nearly unstoppable. The lack of consistent hitting has been San Diego’s weakness all season (and for the last several years), and that really doomed them today, especially as they left the bases loaded in the 7th. The Cardinals pitched well, played great defense, and took advantage of Peavy’s mistakes. They deserved to win it.

Game 2 is scheduled for Thursday at 1PM Pacific. Jeff Suppan takes the mound for the Cardinals to face David Wells — let’s hope Boomer, known for his postseason prowess, can get the Padres back into the series. We don’t need another sweep like last year against these same Cardinals.