Game 5: It did not go 22 Innings because David Eckstein is a blur (seriously....look at the picture)

Last night's game only went 14 innings and the good news is that the Padres got the win, 5-4. The Bad news for me wass that the game ran too late to get in a movie. Who cares, the movie probably would have sucked anyways. On to the game.....

THE GOOD
They're 2-3 instead of 1-4. Sounds better. Looks better.

Chase Headley: Headley went 3 for 5 with two walks last night and finished with a season OPS of .954. Not bad. But here's what has really stood out to me about Chase after 5 games: (granted, it's a very small sample size) he's only struck out twice in 5 games. Now when he struck out swinging in the 8th last night it put a small crimp in the overall direction of where I was going with the numbers but there is still quanitative improvement:

• In 2008 Headley struck out once every 3.5 plate appearances.
• In 2009 Headley struck out once every 4.6 plate appearances.
• In 2010 Headley strikes out once every 11.5 plate appearances and if he hadn't gone fishin' in the 8th it would have been once every 23 plate appearances. Ahhh, ifs and buts..... (click below to continue reading)

Like I said; it's a very small sample size but encouraging none the less. Chase is looking very comfortable at the plate.

Bullpen: The Bullpen was stellar last night. They went 8 innings with only 2 hits allowed. Cesar Ramos did a nice job in his lefty match-up role as did Gregorson, Mujica, and Adams. Then came Tim Stauffer to get 3 innings of relief work followed by Heath Bell's save. Having an effective 'pen is nice.

THE BAD AND THE UGLY (we'll roll 'em into one because I honestly can't discern between the two after last night)

Top of the order: Last week I read a good article at the Friar Forecast  which discussed how Padres' manager Bud Black is doing a poor job of optimizing his line-up. According to findings cited by Friar Forecast it makes the most sense to have a high OBP player hitting lead-off, followed by the team's best hitter in the 2 slot, preferably a player who also has a high OBP (see the link for rationales). Let's look at the first two spots in last night's line-up as week 1 comes to a close:

1. Tony Gwynn Jr. .231 OBP (that is NOT a high on base percentage)
2. David Eckstein  .105 OBP (clearly NOT the best hitter on team nor does he have a high OBP)

Those numbers are both Bad and Ugly. It should first be noted that those two have not been in those roles for every game but they have had a majority of the starts in those respective positions. It should also be noted that they've only played 5 games so the sample size is very small. Tony Gwynn Jr. and David Ecskstein however, do have track records......and they do not indicate a change coming any time soon. When you have guys with numbers that look like that setting the table, you're in for a lot of 14 inning affairs. So if you could look into that Bud, I'd appreciate it......14 inning games adversely affect my movie night.

Other bad/ugly type things:

• Blanks: He's hitting .158 but he did have a couple hits last night including a double.
• Venable: He's hitting .167. He did have a three run triple......but he finished 1 for 7 w/10 LOB.
• Base running: Gwynn was picked off second and Todd Hundley was picked on the "fake-throw-to third-wheel-to first" move. I have NEVER seen that work in MLB but apparently it has. Channel 4 reminded us that the last Padre to get picked in that scenario was........Ruben Rivera. Remember him? No? That's because he sucked.
• Latos: Gave up 3 HRs. But when you throw hard, ball go far when hit! Pitched nice enough in his first start. Got a ND and limited to 84 pitches. Forget Joba, these are The Latos Rules.

Corey Brock's Article [padres.com]
 [Box Score]

Rubber game at 12:10 pm today.