Jorge "Georgey" Cantu Goes Yard For First Time As Padre

According to Baseball Reference, the biggest play of yesterday's game was Will Venable's two-run single in the top of the 8th to turn a 6-5 Padres deficit into a 7-6 Padres lead. The Padres would never look back and, despite some drama by Heath Bell in the ninth, finished the day with a victory.

No doubt Will's hit was big. But for my money I'll take Jorge Cantu's monster 2-run jack off Brett Myers in the top of the 5th. At that point the Astros held a 4-1 lead and, with their ace on the mound and with the anemic way the Padres have hit this young season, that lead felt insurmountable. Jorge's blast brought the Padres back to within a run and rallied a cry of hope down from the mountaintops.

All in all a big hit.

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

Orlando "De La Noche" Gets Walk-Off Hit

I've always thought the best nickname you can give a guy is "de la Noche." In Spanish it means, literally, "of the night." If you append "de la Noche" to someone's name it connotes daring, adventure, fearlessness, guts, a wee bit of recklessness, and a cocksure attitude that, to use a tired but apt phrase, gets things done.

After Orlando Hudson's performance last night I'm now going to call him Orlando de la Noche. In the 8th, Orlando reached on a fielder's choice, stole a bag, and scored the tying run on a Jorge Cantu groundout. Then, in the bottom of the ninth with two outs, he singled in the winning run to complete the Padres 3-2 comeback victory.

I'd say those are acts worthy of the "de la Noche" name.

Jorge Cantu Is Choice

Anytime you can bring in a guy who once hit 28 bombs when he was just 23 years old, you have to do it.

True story: before I gave up Fantasy Baseball because I was bad at it and didn't want to hand cash over to my friends anymore, one of my best moves ever was drafting Jorge Cantu before the 2005 season. As a 23-year old he hit 28 bombs and knocked in 117 ribeyes. Of course my stupid fantasy league also counted statistics such as "walks," "triples," and "errors," so Cantu's value was marginal. Still, 28 bombs for a guy eligible at second base. Not bad.

I'm not often one to make predictions, but my prediction this season is Cantu reverts to form and gets some big hits as a Drino.