My Padres - 50 Game Report

They are still "my Padres" and always will be - through thick and thin. It was an interesting and frustrating last 10 games - the starting pitching failed often, the hitters had some big innings, and the defense faltered.

In games 41 to 50 on the season, the Friars won 4 and lost 6. The scorecard:

May 17 -- Pads 14, Snakes 10 (Pads score 9 in the first, hang on to win)

May 19 -- Seattle 7, Pads 4
May 20 -- Seattle 6, Pads 3
May 21 -- Seattle 10, Pads 8

May 22 - Braves 3, Pads 1 (Peavy has 16 K's, but loses to Smoltz, we were there)
May 23 -- Pads 2, Braves 1
May 24 - Braves 10, Pads 6

May 26 -- Pads 7, Cards 1 (probably best game of the year for Pads)
May 27 -- Cards 4, Pads 3 (probably most frustrating game of the year for Pads - we were there)
May 28 -- Pads 10, Cards 8 (probably the most fun game of the year)

After 50 games, the team is 26 wins and 24 losses. In May, they have 17 wins, 9 losses. In this 10 game period, we went from first place to last place in the wild NL west where every team has a winning record.

The report card:

Starting pitching - B- (too many homers, too many big innings, will Estes or Woody come back?)

Relief pitching - C (only fair for long relievers, good for end of game, Cassidy faltered this last two weeks, Brower was poor, Adkins shows potential).

Defense -- B+ (had some problems in Seattle, but overall range is good, throws are good, DPs are up, but outfield arms are weak).

Speed -- C (Roberts, Cameron and Barfield are stealing, but the rest are sslllooooowww).

Hitting -- C- (near last in BA, near last in HRs, but power was up this last homestand, Gonzalez, Castilla, Greene have all faded a bit, but Piazza, Cameron and Giles have come alive. Bard is amazing - over 0.400 with 5 HRs in 43 ABs).

Coaching -- B (Bochy is getting what he can out of the pitchers and hitters, he should run more and bunt more)

That's it - stay tuned for my 60 game report card in two weeks.

PS - Some folks haven't asked me why I bother with this -- my response is that someone may care and I want to enlighten him or her. At the end of the year, I will have a semi-diary of the entire season - will my Pads have a winning season? Make the playoffs? Win the Series? Hope springs eternal in the heart of a true blue Padres fan (but it is rarely realized!).

You know, I could be honking up this blog with a game-by-game report...