Not The Pitching Too ...

The Padres lost again last night to the Brewers, this time 8-6 in a game that at one point the Brewers led 8-0.

Small consolation.

Still, if the Padres win this afternoon, they'll be at .500 for the month, and no worse than 6 games back of first. That's not bad considering they have the worst hitting in the league. Nor is it bad considering their starting pitching, one of the team's few strengths in April, has been up and down this month.

Let's look at the starters numbers through the first 10 days of May (April ERA in parens):

Aaron Harang: 1-1 4.50 (3.90)
Tim Stauffer: 0-0 0.00 (3.12)
Dustin Moseley: 1-1 3.75 (1.99)
Clayton Richard: 0-2 8.64 (3.82)
Mat Latos: 0-1 4.63 (4.98)

After today every starter will have made two starts this month. But other than Tim's choice start against the DBacks last Friday, none of the guys has improved on his April numbers (Mat's middling improvement can hardly be counted). Aaron had a good start against the DBacks on Sunday, but that has to be paired with a disastrous outing against Pittsburgh on May 2. Moseley likewise had a great outing on May 1 against the Dadgers, only to be rocked Saturday against Arizona. And Clayton has been just bad, albeit the victim of some poor defense in his May 4 start against the Buccos.

If this up-and-down trend continues, Tim may be due for a dicey performance today. But I hope that doesn't happen.

How's that for an inspirational pregame speech?

Nick Hundley: The Pitcher Whisperer?

Yes, the Padres lost 4-3 to the Buccos last night, snapping a 9-game winning streak against the Pirates dating back to 2009. Yes, Aaron Harang had his second straight dicey outing, giving up two first inning home runs to the likes of Chris Snyder and Garrett "Improved Plate Discipline" Jones. And yes, the Padres only went 1-8 with runners in scoring position, stranding 7 runners on base and having a runner thrown out at home.

But I did see one thing I liked in last night's game.

In the top of the 9th with the Padres protecting a 1-run lead, Bud Black called Luke Gregerson out of the pen to replace Ernesto Frieri, who had walked three of the last 4 batters (the bases weren't loaded because in between those walks Nick Hundley threw out Lyle Overbay trying to steal, in my view not even the best thing Nick did in the inning.) Luke promptly walked the first batter he faced and threw a bad looking ball to the next batter, Steven Pearce. It was then that Nick Hundley stepped up. He walked out to the mound, said a few words to Luke, patted him on the ass, and went back to his spot behind the plate.

Luke struck out Pearce in three more pitches. Then he got McCutchen to ground out to end the inning.

So yes, the Padres didn't win the game, but I liked what I saw in the interaction between Nick and Luke. That bodes well for Nick's increasing ability to handle the Padres pitching staff.

Luddence Von Ludwick III

Ryan Ludwick hit due bombs last night (I mean due here as in the Italian word for "two," pronounced doo-ay, but I also like the connotation of the English word "due," as in "Ludwick was due to hit some frickin' bombs"), including a walk-off shot in the bottom of the 13th, to lead the Padres to a 5-3 victory over the Braves. Chris Denorfia made an astounding clutch diving grab in the top of the 13th to preserve the tie and set up Ludwick's walk off.

Let's talk Ludwick for a moment. He now has four HRs on the season and ten overall as a Padre. Most notably, in addition to last night's walk off, he had a go-ahead bomb in the top of the 9th in a big game against the Cardinals last September, and a huge bomb off Matt Cain in the second inning of the first game of the final three-game series last October in San Francisco. The Padres ultimately came up short in that series, but Luddy's bomb in the Friday night game started the momentum that would keep the season alive two extra days. (And I know of what I speak since, you know, I was there and all.)

Much is made of Ludwick's underachieving hitting since becoming a Padre, but I prefer to focus on some of the clutch bombs he's hit, and trust that there will be many more as the season unfolds.

Incidentally, Ludwick rakes on Derek Lowe. Ludwick's first homer last night was the fourth he's hit in his career off Lowe, the most he's hit off any pitcher (current teammate Aaraon Harang is second with three).

Two Nights In Houston

Kudos to Ryan Ludwick for his big 2-run single on Friday night And to Chris Denorfia for hitting a home-run and a double. Those hits, and solid performances by Aaron Harang and the bullpen, led to a 4-2 victory over the Stros.

Last night things didn't break so well for the Padres. Mat Latos only gave up 4 hits over 6.1 innings but one of those hits was a two-run bomb to Chris Johnson. Another was a reaching swing by Hunter Pence that fell for a double scoring Michael Bourn who had reached on an infield single. Trouble also arose when Bud Black sent Latos back out in the 6th and, after striking out Brett Wallace, he walked back-to-back batters that would both later score. Another in a line of winnable losses by the 2011 Padres.

And, as we look ahead to this afternoon's games, I'll leave you with this list of Padres and their current batting averages:

Brad Hawpe - .143
Jason Bartlett - .132
Ryan Ludwick - .116
Will Venable - .146
Jorge Cantu - .167

The Day Spring Training Begins

Today is the day all the Padres players report to Spring Training. The pitchers and catchers reported last week, and most of the position players already checked in, but today's the day they all have to be there. The team gives them physicals today, and then tomorrow they start workouts.

I once told my boss that I hoped to be in a position one day where I could just take off the entire month of March, go to Arizona, and watch Spring Training games. He sighed and said, me too. I appreciated that response because he just as easily could have said, "You want March off? Fine, take it. And take the rest of the year off too, without pay."

Here are the storylines I'll be following in Peoria:

1. Will Cameron Maybin offend every member of the Padres front office with his tweets?

2. Will the Red Sox prospects - Rizzo, Kelly - look noticeably better than all the Padres prospects?

3. Will any pitcher stake a clear claim to the #5 spot in the rotation?

4. Will Kyle Blanks demonstrate that he has any semblance of a hitting stroke back?

5. Will Aaran Harang look like he can be a dependable innings eater throughout the season?

I'm sure more stories will develop but this is what I'll be looking at in the first week or so.

What a glorious time of year.