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).

April Is Football Weather At Wrigley Field

Game-time temperature of Padres-Cubs Game 1 yesterday at Wrigley: 42 degrees Fahrenheit.

Game-time temperature of Illinois-Northwestern football game last November at Wrigley: 43 degrees Fahrenheit.

The Padres won Game 2 to split the doubleheader. Ryan Ludwick went 5-8 with 2 doubles on the day. His batting average after 70 plate appearances is an even .200.

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

If You Can't Score Runs At Minute Maid Park, Maybe You Can't Score Runs

The title of this post is negative, but the post itself will focus on the positive from yesterday's 1-0 loss to the Astros at Minute Maid Park in Houston.

Here's what I liked from yesterday's game:

- Orlando de la Noche's continued run of impressive at bats. Orlando walked twice and singled yesterday (and stole his 6th bag of the season) to raise his average to .326. He couldn't drive in the tying run with a runner on third and one out in the 8th, but you still have to like Orlando's approach so far this season.

- Ryan Ludwick's catch and throw to double up Brett Wallace at second base in the second. Ludwick had misplayed a Brett Wallace double on the play before, but he made up for it by catching Bill E. Hall's liner and firing a strike to second to double up Wallace. Doesn't quite make up for his 0-4, 3 K performance, but still, a nice play.

- Dustin Moseley's outing. Dustin pitched 6.2 innings and gave up 1 run. He only struckout 1 guy, but he limited walks and induced 18 ground balls (as opposed to 8 fly balls), a very important statistic at a place like Minute Maid. On the season Dustin is 0-3 with a 1.83 ERA and 1.27 WHIP. If he finishes the year 0-18 but with a sub-2.00 ERA, you have to give him a Cy Young vote, right?

If You Are A Dodger Fan, You Didn't Like Yesterday's Bomb Show at Petco

Nick Hundley, Ryan Ludwick, and Cameron Maybin all went yard yesterday afternoon to lead the Padres to a 7-2 beatdown of the Hated Dadgers.

Maybe the Padres should play all their home games at 1:05 PM when, as Mark Grant put it, there's a "jet stream" blowing out to left center.

Incidentally, I love the above photo taken by my boy Dilip Vishwanat. Nick Hundley should love it too. It actually makes him look fast and athletic.

Will Venable, Cameron Maybin, Ryan Ludwick: Monsters?

Will Venable hit a 3-run bomb this afternoon in an early-Spring tuneup against the Rockies. That's a good sign because Will has a bead on starting in right field for the Padres this season, filling out an outfield that will also include Cameron Maybin and Ryan Ludwick.

Call me a wildly optimistic Padres fan, but I think this year's outfield has a chance to rival my favorite Padres outfield of the Petco Park Years: the '06 outfield of Dave Roberts, Mike Cameron, and Brian Giles.

Take a look at the numbers Roberts, Cameron, and Giles put up in '06:

Roberts: .293/.360/.393 ... 13 triples, 2 bombs, 49 bags
Cameron: .268/.355/.482 ... 22 bombs, 83 ribeyes, 25 bags
Giles: .263/.374/.397 ... 14 bombs, 83 ribeyes, 104 walks

I'll also add that all three had an OPS+ exceeding 100: 101 (Roberts), 121 (Cameron), 107 (Giles).

Meanwhile, here's how our three heroes, Venable, Maybin, and Ludwick, fared in '10:

Venable: .245/.324/.408 ... 13 bombs, 29 bags, 104 OPS+
Ludwick: .251/.325/.418 ... 17 bombs, 69 ribeyes, 104 OPS+
Maybin: .234/.302/.361 ... 8 bombs, 9 bags, 75 OPS+

Maybe I am overly optimistic. It will take quite a bit of improvement for these guys to match the '06 group. But I'm certain all three will improve over their performance in 2010.

The question is by how much.

In The Belly Of The Beast: Padres Lose Game Three In San Franciso, Miss Playoffs

This was the only photo I could bring myself to take during yesterday's season finale in San Francisco. I don't know who this Padres fan was roaming AT&T Park, but he was definitely a beast. You can't see it, but he's dominating a hot dog in this photo. The Giants fans are top notch rooters, and heckled me quite a bit as I walked around the park the last few days. When I showed my wife the photo of this Padres fan, all she said was, "I bet he doesn't get heckled."

She's probably right.

I don't have much to say about the game because the more I think about it, the more I want to weep. A few things stand out in my mind: Adrian's line-out with two outs in the first, Ludwick striking out with two on in the third, Denorfia diving and missing Aubrey Huff's two-out double in the bottom half of the third, Torrealba's 5-4 double play after the Padres had the first two runners on in the top of the 6th, Tejada striking out on a full count with two on in the seventh, Durango working the count full to lead off the 9th before grounding out to short. Geoff Young has a much more thorough summary at Hardball Times.

I'll quote my wife again, as she was the one person I interviewed after the game: "They just got in a rut early, and the game just kept going forward, and they never pulled out of it."

My thought? The Padres didn't lose the season yesterday. They lost it during the three-game losing streak last Sunday to Tuesday, and then with the 1-0 loss to the Cubs on Thursday. Those losses just left too much ground to cover, even for a game Padres team.

In The Belly Of The Beast: Padres Win Game One In San Francisco

I couldn't make it to San Diego to support the Padres earlier this week, so instead I came out to San Francisco - the belly of the beast - to root on the team in the final series of the regular season.

Tonight was the most intense baseball game I've ever seen in person.

A few observations:

- Even though he is in his late thirties and has a sore groin, I was still shocked Miguel Tejada was thrown out at home in the first inning. I swear the right fielder still had the ball when Miggy rounded third. Yet he was out by a three steps.

- The Ryan Ludwick, Adrian Gonzalez and Matt Stairs home runs in the second, third, and fourth innings, respectively, were three of the more satisfying moments in the history of non-playoff Padres baseball.

- AT&T Park was absolutely electric. Moreso than I've ever seen Petco. When the Giants rallied in the 6th, and had the tying run at the plate, it felt like the world was ending. At least from my point of view. I know the 8th inning got a little dicey, but the 6th inning was the most nerve-wracking inning I've watched in person. Having a big lead in the 6th inning is nice, but when a quality home team still has 12 outs to play with, and a raucous crowd behind them, the game is nowhere near over. The sixth inning was like my worst fears coming true. I thought Bud Black was making a mistake removing Thatcher after one batter, and replacing him with Gregerson, but to Bud's credit it worked out.

- All of Adrian's mishaps with the glove. I sincerely hope I never have to witness anything like that ever again.

- The ninth inning. Oh my. Just before Aubrey Huff hit his surefire double to deep right field, I'd glanced up and saw that Will Venable - who had shifted over from center - was playing very deep. I don't know who deserves credit for that defensive placement but it was brilliant. Venable ran down Huff's drive and then doubled up Freddy Sanchez who, thinking Huff had either homered or doubled, had already rounded second. The play happened so fast and was so awesome, I'm still not sure I actually saw it. Overheard from the Giant fan sitting next to me, "Oh my God that was deflating."

Plan for tomorrow: after a morning watching the Illini take on Ohio St. at Kezar Pub, it's back to AT&T for Game 2.

Jaysus.

Ludwick Il Magnifico!

Winner.

Watching Games With Will Venable In Them

As I sit on my sofa watching this Padres-Buccos game on my computer, it occurred to me, for no particular reason, that I hope Will Venable gets the bulk of at bats from the LF position the rest of the season.

Ryan Ludwick is now the everyday RF, and I'm fine with that, especially because he hit his first Drino HR this evening.

But Venable has the speed and power that I'd like to see in the field the majority of games down the stretch. Not only does he have 10 bombs and 19 bags in only 255 ABs on the season, but from August 1 to September 25 last year, a nice winning stretch for the '09 Padres, he raised his average from .243 to .273. I'd love for him to tap into that hot streak again these next two months.

True, he has 88 Ks on the season and is only hitting at a .238 clip, but I think there may be some lightning in that bat that is somehow tapped into the weather patterns of the dog days of August and early September.

Wishful thinking? Maybe.

But I hope Buddy puts him in the lineup to find out.

Ludwick: Help Us Get A W Today

Luds,

After two straight losses to the Marlins, the Padres may need your bat even more than previously believed.

I eagerly anticipate your presence in the lineup this afternoon.

Best,

Bevormo