Fifty-one different guys have played for the Padres this season -- four more than last year, and two less than 2012. How many can you name in ten minutes?

Only last names are needed, and they don't need to be answered in any particular order. They are, however, listed in alphabetical order, so that might prove helpful once you've knocked out all the ones you know right off the bat.

Once you're through, don't forget to log your results in the poll below. After that, comment up a storm about the ones you got, the ones you forgot, and the ones you wish you could have forgotten; just be sure to use spoiler-bars over names, out of respect for those who haven't taken it yet.

A recap of what happened between September 15-21 in the National League West.

The second to last week of the 2014 season featured one team clinching a playoff spot and the rest losing ground in the standings.

Team Recaps

Diamondbacks (1-6): It was a rough week for Arizona that started out on one positive note. The Dbacks began with a 6-2 win over the Giants. But Arizona then lost its next six straight, which included two at home against San Francisco and four on the road in Colorado.

Padres (6-1): San Diego had nearly the exact opposite week of Arizona. The Padres won straight against the Phillies to start off before losing the third game of a four game set. But San Diego bounced back and won game four against Philadelphia. The Padres then hosted the Giants and swept them right out of Petco Park.

Rockies (6-1): The third and fourth place teams in the division enjoyed similar weeks. Colorado lost their first game of the week 11-3 to Los Angeles before winning the next two games by scores of 10-4 and 16-2. The Rockies continued their offensive outburst over the week and swept the Diamondbacks in a four game series at Coors Field.

Giants (2-4): San Francisco started off with a 6-2 loss to Arizona before winning the final two games of the three game series. But it went downhill from their after Thursday's off day. The Giants traveled to San Diego and were swept in a three game set by the Padres.

Dodgers (4-3): It was a very interesting week offensively for Los Angeles. The Dodgers lost two of three to the Rockies before winning three of four against the Cubs. In each of the seven games, the winning team scored eight runs or more. Four times, the winning team scored more than 10 runs.

The week ahead

Diamondbacks: Three on the road against the Twins, day off, and three at home against the Cardinals.

Padres: Three at home against the Rockies and four on the road against the Giants.

Rockies: Three on the road against the Padres, day off, and three on the road against the Dodgers.

Giants: Three on the road against the Dodgers and four at home against the Padres.

Dodgers: Three at home against the Giants, day off, and three at home against the Rockies.

Player of the week

Dodgers' outfielder Yasiel Puig. There were multiple players this could have gone too, but in the end it was Puig who took it home. The outfielder finished the week with an incredible stat line: .419 avg, .471 OBP, .710 SLG, 2 home runs, 6 RBI, 12 runs scored. Rafael Ynoa nearly took this one with his .478 average, but in the end his zero homers and one run scored hurt him.

Best Individual Performance

Dodgers' catcher A.J. Ellis. During the Dodgers' 14-5 win over the Padres on September 19th, Ellis had quite the day. He went 2-4 with 3 R, 2 HR, and 4 RBI. The outbreak increased his 2014 home run total from one to three in one day.

Team of the Week

The Colorado Rockies. This nearly went to the Dodgers because they clinched at least a Wild Card spot, but the Rockies were too good to pass up. Colorado went 6-1 thanks to an incredible 9.14 runs per game. Colorado scored double digit runs three times including 16 on Wednesday the 17th and 15 two days later on Friday the 19th.

Worst Individual Performance

Dodgers' pitcher Carlos Frias. When the Dodgers lost to the Rockies 16-2 on September 17, Frias had the worst outing of his short career. The righty started and finished with this line: 0.2 IP, 10 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 1 HR, 0 BB, and 0 Ks.

As the baseball season comes to a close for the Padres, it seems like a good time to look back and review just how players, coaches, executives and ownership have fared in the past season.  Today I thought we'd let you vote to see if Padres ownership met their three vague commitments they set for themselves last November.  They set no timeline for when these commitments would be met, that I know of, so I figure we'll grade them each year until we consider them complete.

The commitments are as follows:

THE 3 COMMITMENTS OF OWNERSHIP

• To field a team worthy of the fans support with the goal of competing for a World Series Championship each season.
• To provide a fun, affordable and entertaining experience at Petco Park and to market that experience to a diverse fan base throughout the entire San Diego and Baja California region.
• To be active and vital members of the community.

As I stated last year, the goals are open to interpretation.  For instance, every team competes for a World Series Championship by playing in the regular season. Does this mean the commitment has been met?  Or does this mean that the club must be one of the two teams playing in the Series?  Or do they just need to make the playoffs?  Or do they just need to set a goal of the World Series?  Also, is the team worthy of fan support if we're terrible fans? Ownership doesn't answer these questions, so I'll let you decide with your vote.

Was the Petco Park experience fun, entertaining and affordable?  Well, I'd suspect that fans will have different opinions on that as well, based on where they set the bar for entertainment and what affordable means to them.  Did they market to a diverse fan base in Baja California?  Again, you decide.

Is the team active and vital member of the community?  In some areas they've been active, but vital?  You be the judge.

Give the team a pass or fail grade for each of their commitments so they know whether they need to improve in these areas for next year.  After you vote you'll see a  link to the results.

After a sweep of the visiting Giants, our Padres looks to close out their final homestand of the season with another strong series against another NL West foe. The Rockies come to town for three games to try to extend their longest winning streak of the season, but they'll have to go up against a Padres team that's been almost as hot lately.

San Diego pitching has been fantastic, posting a combined 1.63 ERA, during their current four-game winning streak. Hopefully Eric Stults can keep that going tonight and open up the series against Colorado on a strong note. Stults threw four brilliants innings in his latest outing before things fell apart in the 5th. He gave up four runs and was only able to get one out before being pulled from the game. Stults is also winless (0-2) in his last five against the Rockies, though only one of those games took place at Petco Park. He faced them most recently on September 5th, giving up three runs on eight hits in 6 1/3 innings of work at Coors Field.

Tyler Matzek also started that game, but he fared much better. He pitched a three-hit complete-game shutout for his fifth win of the season. Overall, Matzek has been stellar lately, going 4-1 with a 1.56 ERA in his last five outings. His most recent saw him give up two runs in 5 1/3 innings against the division-leading Dodgers.

The game gets underway at 7:10 PT tonight.

The Rockies have won six straight. Tyler Matzek is hot. Let's keep both those things going.

Tyler Matzek's solid rookie season is one of only a handful of positives to take out of 2014. The lefty has a 4.19 ERA, 3.87 FIP, and 1.8 fWAR in 111.2 innings. If 2015 is going to go any better than 2014, Matzek's continued growth will be a big reason. With the combination of the heavy air at Petco Park and the lousy Padres lineup, signs point to Matzek posting a good game.

However, the Padres have won four straight, including a sweep of the Giants, so they're playing well right now as well.

Left handed slop-baller Eric Stults is going for the Padres, and he's in the middle of a terrible year. The 4.59 ERA is a trainwreck for a guy who pitches half his games in San Diego, and the -0.9 fWAR is brutal.

It's kind of surprising Walt Weiss is going with Charlie Blackmon over Drew Stubbs; what happened to the platoon? The counterargument, as usual, is that it doesn't matter how the Titanic's deck chairs are oriented.

Last week of Rockies baseball. Enjoy it while you can.

An Eric Stults gem blanks the Rockies and extends the Padres' winning streak.

No matter which way you slice it, this has not been the best year for Eric Stults. Not only has he piled up more losses, a higher ERA and more walks and hits per innings pitched than last year, but he is also on pace to pitch significantly fewer innings that 2013 when he topped 200. Despite all that, sometimes you tune in to an Eric Stults-started game and catch one like this. He is savvy and he is battler and some nights he keeps guys off balance enough to whiff his fare share and shut down the offense overall. Today was one of those days. When he has one of these days I like to say:

I don't know exactly why I like to say it, but maybe it has to do with Stults' success being so improbably based on his repertoire that you just want to yell it at the opposing fan as an insult to their team. Actually, there is video somewhere of me doing just that to visiting Angels fans back in 2012 when Stultsy recorded his first ever win for the Padres.

The Padres didn't provide much wiggle room for the Rockies to get Stultsed. They did provide it early though. In the first inning after a Jedd Gyorko walk possible team MVP Rene Rivera gapped a 2 out double to drive in the second year second sacker. That duo tried to help out some more in the 6th when Gyorko walked again and Rivera singled. Yasmani Grandal would walk as well to load the bases with 1 out, but rookies Tommy Medica and Rymer Liriano each flailed unsuccessfully and struck out to end the threat.

The one issue with Stults' craftiness on the day is that it took a lot of pitches to get through 6 innings. That led to him getting the hook in the 7th after an out and a single. Fortunately for him, the bullpen is well set up to preserve a tight one like this. Nick Vincent kept his runner stranded. Dale Thayer danced between the raindrops to keep the shutout intact. And, despite a pinch hitting appearance by Padre-killer Wilin Rosario, Kevin Quackenbush closed it out for his 6th save of the season.

Tyler Matzek had yet another strong outing on the mound, but it mattered not as the Rockies were shut out for the third time in their last seven road games.

For just the second time in franchise history, the Rockies had double-digit hits, but were shutout in a 1-0 loss to the Padres at Petco Park.

The loss snapped the Rockies six-game winning streak overall, but extended their losing streak on the road to eight. Colorado's road record for the season also fell to a dismal 20-56. This was the ninth time this season the Rockies have been shut out away from Coors Field.

The lone run of the game came in the bottom of the first when Rockies starter Tyler Matzek issued a two-out walk to Jedd Gyorko and a Rene Rivera double scored the Padres' second baseman.

Despite the early run, Matzek had another strong outing, allowing just the one run on four hits in six innings of work, walking three and striking out eight, dropping his ERA to 4.05 on the season and 1.69 in 26 2/3 innings in September. Tommy Kahnle and Brooks Brown each pitched scoreless innings of relief for the Rockies.

Colorado was not without its chances offensively with 10 hits and a walk in the game, but they went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and left 10 men on base, five of those in scoring position.

The only extra-base hit of the game for the Rockies came in the top of the eighth with a leadoff double from Justin Morneau, which was followed by a pair of pop-ups and a flyout.

The Rockies will look to get their first road win since August 30 tomorrow as Jorge De La Rosa takes on Robbie Erlin. First pitch is at 8:10 p.m. Mountain Time.

Source: FanGraphs

In January of this year Johnny Manziel attended a football camp at Petco Park.  It's there that Padres President Mike Dee and Johnny Football met for the first time. Their relationship blossomed over a dinner date.

Johnny Baseball? Manziel drafted by Padres | MLB.com

After working out at Petco Park with Whitfield, a mutual friend of Manziel and team president Mike Dee's put the two in touch. Dee and Manziel later had dinner together in San Diego.

In June, Josh Byrnes drafted Manziel in the 28th round as an ill-conceived publicity stunt.  Fans (myself included) weren't amused by the Padres flippant pick after years of poor draft performance.  Byrnes tried to defend the pick, but most suspected it wasn't his idea in the first place and he was likely covering for a decision made by Dee.

For the most part the Manziel pick blew over after a few weeks.  But Dee and the Padres came under fire again when they made another poor decision that upset fans by naming a plaza at Petco Park after Commissioner Bud Selig.  Their reputation tarnished, they finally seem to have seen the light and have made efforts to reconnect with fans.

Yesterday, a fan, saw that the Padres team store was selling a Johnny Manziel jersey.  With a retweet by Darren Rovell, the news spread.

Johnny Manziel baseball jersey at San Diego @Padres team store @darrenrovellpic.twitter.com/DrGtUKYDWq

— Luke Wolfe (@LukeWolfe21) September 22, 2014

Fans again became upset. Had the Padres learned nothing?

@CoreyAStewart Store is operated by our concessionaire. Done without our knowledge. Immediately removed.

— Wayne Partello (@WaynePartello) September 23, 2014

This time the Padres brass didn't try to defend the poor decision by the team store and instead they resolved it quickly by removing it.

The Natural (1984)

I guess some mistakes you never stop paying for.

I'm really hoping that the relationship between leadership and fans can be healed by next season and that everyone is soon working in the best interest of the team.

UPDATE:

@gaslampball At least one person bought one. Photo taken at Beerfest: http://t.co/w4C0BcYHbw

— RJ's Fro (@RJsFro) September 23, 2014

The Pirates scooped the right-hander up for a bargain deal last offseason, and following a strong 2014 campaign, Volquez is looking to capitalize on his impending free agency.

Pittsburgh Pirates' right-hander Edinson Volquez has had a productive rebound season with the Pirates this year, and seems to be open to the idea of remaining in Pittsburgh. According to Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, the 31-year-old Volquez is interested in re-signing with the Pirates this offseason, though he still intends on exploring free agency. Volquez adds that he is seeking a two or three-year deal on the market this winter.

"Why not?" Volquez said. "I think I signed in the right place with the right coaches. They made me a better pitcher this year. So, I'd like to stay here."

The Pirates picked Volquez up for next to nothing (one-year, $5 million) last offseason, and he has given the club a solid return on their investment. In 185.2 innings, Volquez has a 3.15 ERA, 113 ERA+, 4.28 FIP, 6.3 K/9, 3.4 BB/9, and 2.0 WAR. While his performance this season has definitely been impressive, Volquez still carries the caveat of being a Tommy John survivor, and his innings total this season represents his highest mark since 2008. Prior to this season, Volquez had also never really been an above-average pitcher sans a brilliant 2008 campaign. From 2009-2013, he has posted just a 76 ERA+ and 1.70 K/BB. He had arguably the worst year of his career in 2013, notching a 5.71 ERA while playing for the Dodgers and Padres, both of whom play in extreme pitcher's parks.

Of course, the Pirates would likely miss Volquez's presence in their rotation were he to depart. With both Volquez and Francisco Liriano scheduled to hit the market this offseason, Pittsburgh will head into 2015 with a rotation of Gerrit Cole, Jeff Locke, Charlie Morton, and Vance Worley, with prospects such as Jameson Taillon (whenever he returns from Tommy John) and Nick Kingham waiting in the minors. While that appears to be a decent rotation, it is far from that of impact-caliber barring a full-on breakout from Cole and the continued dominance of Worley.

Tonight was the Padres' 82nd loss of the season. For those of you that have trouble with math, that means the team will officially finish under .500. It's hard to pin this one on anything but bad luck, though. Robbie Erlin tossed a short but solid 4 innings, allowing 2 runs on 6 hits and 2 walks. He got plenty of backup from the bullpen, too. Tim Stauffer, R.J. Alvarez, Dale Thayer, and Blaine Boyer combined to allow just one run on 2 hits in 5 innings while striking out 8. Meanwhile, the offense went a respectable 9 for 33 with 6 walks, but the timing just wasn't there, as they only went 2 for 10 with runners in scoring position. You know what that is? That's baseball.

Rafael Ynoa and Justin Morneau hit a double and a single in the third to put the Rockies on the board. A trio of no-out back-to-back-to-back singles from Brandon Barnes, Josh Rutledge, and D.J. LeMahieu scored another run in the fourth. A double play followed by a ground out kept the inning from turning into a complete disaster.

The Friars offense finally woke up in the sixth inning. Jedd Gyorko led off with a single, and was nearly stranded when Rene Rivera and Yasmani Grandal both followed up with strikeouts. But Tommy Medica made us all swoon by starting a two-out rally with a single to right field. Rymer Liriano followed that up with an RBI single to put the Pads within one. Then the red-hot Alexi Amarista hit another RBI single to knot the game at two.

Alas, Drew Stubbs hit a leadoff homer off of Dale Thayer in the eighth inning. The Padres managed to get two more runners in scoring position before game's end, but stranded them both. A winning season is now out of the question, but there's still time for the Padres to improve on 2013, as they only need to win two of their remaining five games to top 76 wins.

No-No Joe Wieland gets the start in the final home game of the season (I'M NOT CRYING YOU'RE CRYING). The last first pitch is at 6:10 PM.

I was late to the game thread, but still led with 15 comments, which tells you what kind of thread it was. Friar Fever received the sad, lone rec.

The Rockies got six innings from Jorge De La Rosa, a big home run from Drew Stubbs, and a couple of really sweet defensive plays in their season series clinching win against the Padres.

It's too bad the Rockies are not playing meaningful baseball right now, because that eighth inning is the type of thing you remember for a long, long time if you're in a pennant race.

The Rockies got on the board first, scoring a run in both the third and fourth innings. A Rafael Yona double coupled with a Justin Morneau RBI single drew first blood before back to back to back singles from Brandon Barnes, Josh Rutledge, and DJ LeMahieu doubled the lead the following inning.

The Padres came back to tie the game in the sixth when they finally broke through against a scuffling Jorge De La Rosa, but the veteran lefty pitched deep enough into the game while keeping San Diego off the board long enough to give his team a strong chance to win.

Anybody who's watched the lefty's journey through this organization knows just how far De La Rosa's come when he turns in a start like this. There's nothing impressive about the seven hits he allowed, the four walks he surrendered, or the San Diego lineup he was facing. However, what De La Rosa has learned to do as well as any pitcher ever has in this organization, is fight through trouble and get results.

He's emotionally charged, and  early in his career would frequently let an outing like this spiral out of control fast, but through hard work and experience, he's learned to channel that fuel into a strength that lets him make the right pitch when he absolutely has to have it.  If you want another reason why the Rockies signed this guy to a two year deal besides the team's home record when he starts, look at night's like tonight where he turns in two runs over six innings of work when the bullpen easily could have been in the game in the fifth inning with three or four runs on the board.

The seventh was mostly uneventful, but it did feature a scoreless inning of work from Juan Nicasio who has now posted a 3.24 ERA while holding opponents to a .637 OPS over his last 16 relief appearances. This continues to be an interesting candidate for a bullpen role next season.

Then came the crazy eighth. The offensively starved road Rockies received a jolt when they least expected it. Dale Thayer, who has a 1.98 ERA on the year and a 1.63 ERA since the All Star Break surrendered a lead off solo home to Drew Stubbs who launched it over the wall the other way to right for his 15th big fly of the year. Not only was it off a reliable reliever, it was also against a righty, the side of the platoon Stubbs has not fared nearly as well against this season.

In the bottom half of the inning, Rene Rivera tried to answer the Stubbs bomb with his own solo shot, but Brandon Barnes had other ideas ....

First of all, take a look at how much Ottavino's pitch misses its location inside. Wow was that a "hit me" hanger!

This play is all about Barnes however. Not only did he make a brilliant catch, but he also let the fans behind him know it. After the game, he had this to say:

"[The fans] were getting on me when I was playing catch saying that the ball was going to come out there, saying it was going to be a home run, and I told them I was going to rob one. On the first play it happened. So I gave them a little wave and told them what was up."

Fun moment, but the inning wasn't over. The Padres still manged to get two on with two out before DJ LeMahieu made another great defensive play to end the inning.

The Padres made things interesting again in the ninth as Will Venable worked an 11 pitch walk against LaTroy Hawkins to lead off the inning and later stole second. However, he would go no further. Hawkins, as he so often does when there's traffic, got the men he needed to nail down the win in the 998th game of his career.

As a result, the Rockies have now won the season series against the Giants, D'Backs, and Padres, despite their overall putrid record.

The victory, coupled with Arizona's loss tonight in Minnesota, also all but ensures the Rockies of a fourth place finish in the N.L. West. With each day that passes, it looks more and more like the D'Backs are going to be picking first in next year's draft. With just four games left, the most likely draft spot for the Rockies is the fourth pick, but the third and fifth selections are also still very much on the table.

Graph:

Source: FanGraphs

Roll Call

Total Comments: 328

Total commenters: 19

AlexWhitesChauffeur, Chrysicat, Ducks_RockiesFan, ESterps08, JaySantos, Nephelimdream, NoDo Joe, Northsider1964, PurpleToPurple, RhodeIslandRoxfan, RockyMountainWay91, RoctoMom, SDcat09, The Ghost of Marv Throneberry, The Lodo Magic Man, bearpigman, butterfly2, holly96, rockiesfan4ever

Seven years ago on this date, with two starting outfielders sidelined and a postseason spot on the line, the Padres acquired outfielder Jason Lane from the Astros for cash or a player to be named later, which ended up being the former. Lane appeared in three games the final week of the season, failing to reach base in either of his two plate appearances. He headed to the Yankees organization as a free agent after the season, and his place as a footnote in Padres history seemed complete. Of course, you and I both know now that wasn't the case.

Lane made his Padres debut September 26, 2007, replacing Brian Giles in right field in the eighth inning of an 11-3 win at San Francisco; he struck out on three pitches in his lone turn at bat. The other two games that Lane appeared in were heartbreaking losses. He grounded out as a pinch-hitter in the eleventh inning of the loss to Milwaukee which is best remembered for Anthony Keith Gwynn, Jr's RBI triple off Trevor Hoffman with two outs and two strikes in the bottom of the ninth. Those were his only plate-appearances, but he did make it into one more game as a defensive replacement; he watched from center field as Matt Holliday was incorrectly called safe.

That awful, awful game was Lane's last as a major league outfielder. The 2008 season kicked off an over-six-year-long odyssey that saw Lane sign with seven different organizations along with serving three stints in independent ball before returning to the majors as a pitcher. Just writing that sentence gets me wondering who is going to play him in the movie.

This day 25 years ago, rookie phenom Andy Benes picked up his sixth win in his ninth start as the Padres defeated reigning Cy Young Award winner Orel Hershiser and the reigning World Series champion Dodgers, 1-0. It was a classic pitcher's duel, with each starter trading zeros for six full innings.

The Dodgers looked like they might be the first to break through when they loaded the bases with one out on two singles and an error in the bottom of the sixth, but Benes struck Lenny Harris out and got Mickey Hatcher to pop up to Garry Templeton to nullify the threat. Benes left the mound, grabbed his helmet and bat, and grounded out to lead off the seventh inning. Switch-hitters Bip Roberts and Roberto Alomar followed that up by both hitting singles to the opposite field, giving the Padres runners on the corners. While hitting a single to the opposite field sounds like a totally Tony Gwynn thing to do, he flipped the script by lofting the second out to center fielder John Shelby, deep enough to allow Roberts to tag and score the game's lone run. That was one of Gwynn's four plate appearances, but he had zero official at-bats in the game. Along with the sacrifice fly, Gwynn also laid down a sacrifice bunt and walked twice; it is one of only nine times in team history that a player has had four plate appearances without an at-bat in a game.

Benes lasted into the eighth inning, but was replaced with two outs and two men on. San Diego closer Mark Davis, Hershiser's successor as Cy Young Award winner, came in and recorded the last four outs for his league-leading forty-second save. The victory raised the second-place Padres' record to 86-70, five games behind the division-leading Giants. It also dropped the Dodgers to 73-83, which is really fun to type.

Tonight's game was sort of like throwing a wet slice of baloney against a window and watching it slide slowly down the glass, leaving a trail of grease along the way. When Tommy Medica hit that three run home run in the first inning you just knew how this thing was going to end up. It was just a question of how long it would take.

Baseball at Petco Park is a long, tedious affair. As the most extreme pitcher's park in the game, much of the romance of baseball is removed. A three run deficit feels like a runaway. Fly balls die in gloves instead of finding gaps or clearing the walls. Mediocre pitchers like Joe Weiland and Yohan Flande look good (well, Weiland looked good).

There was a little bit of offense early, before the sun went down and the marine layer descended. Charlie Blackmon led off with a solo home run, bringing his dinger total up to 19. It would be pretty neat if he reached 20 before the season concluded; he has three games in Los Angeles to try to reach that mark.

The Rockies' lead would be short-lived. Flande ran a fastball into the happy zone of Medica, who turned on it and banged the baseball off the balcony in left field. There were two men on base at the time.

The only Rockies other than Blackmon to record hits were Michael Cuddyer and Corey Dickerson, who each had three hit days. The rest of the club took oh-fers, including Wilin Rosario, who left those guys on base six times. Rosario was in a pretty good groove at Coors Field, but like seemingly every other Rockie, he goes ice cold on the road. Except for Dickerson, who is amazing.

Back to back hits by Cuddyer and Dickerson in the sixth inning brought the game to within a run, but once the bullpen of the Padres got involved, the bats evaporated. It was a slow, plodding walk through the rest of the innings that resulted in the 4-3 loss.

I wish I could have a more interesting result to discuss in my last game recap of the season. I wish there were post-season implications, or a big comeback, or even just a run-of-the-mill victory. But that isn't baseball. Baseball is built on the slow and ordinary, so when the extraordinary does happen, it's all the sweeter. There was precious little to get excited about this season, but I'm still going to miss the game in the upcoming months.

So it's time to sign off for 2014. See y'all with recaps next April. Can't wait.

Source: FanGraphs

In their final home game of 2014, the Padres matched their record of the past two years by putting away their 76th win.

Joe Wieland had a rough start, giving up a solo shot to Charlie Blackmon to start off the game. After following that up with a walk to Rafael Ynoa, he settled down, retiring the next ten in a row. Rockies starter Yohan Flande didn't fare nearly as well. Though he retired two batters in a row after allowing a leadoff double to Yangervis Solarte, Flande beaned Yasmani Grandal and gave up a laser of a homer to Tommy Medica before finally striking out Rymer Liriano to end the inning.

Medica would burn Flande again in the fourth inning. After Grandal singled to open the frame, Tommy scorched a ball down the right field line. Though it was originally called foul, video clearly showed the ball kicking up chalk, and Bud Black successfully challenged the call. That put runners on second and third with nobody out. After getting Liriano to strike out again, Flande put Adam Moore on first to bring up Alexi Amarista. While it wasn't as impressive as Medica's homer in the first, a ground out to second was good enough to bring a run home.

Wieland outlasted Flande, but also ran into some serious trouble before getting lifted. With one out in the sixth inning, he issued back to back walks. That caused Buddy to go to the pen for R.J. Alvarez... who promptly gave up back to back RBI singles to Michael Cuddyer and Corey Dickerson. Darren Balsley went out to tell him to make some f___ing pitches, and he did, retiring the next two Rockies. Nick Vincent, Kevin Quackenbush, and Joaquin Benoit combined to shut Colorado down for the last three innings and wrap up their final homestand in style.

Reigning NL Player of the Week Andrew Cashner opens the final series of the season in San Francisco at 7:15 PM tomorrow. Join us for a good cry, won't you?

Friar Fever led the game thread with 21 comments. There were no recs, because everybody was too sad about the rapidly approaching end of the season.

The rumors surrounding Rockies general manager taking a position with the Braves are heating up as a former colleague has reportedly been offered the GM job in Atlanta.

Could Rockies GM Dan O'Dowd leave for Atlanta Braves? - The Denver Post
Patrick Saunders has the latest on the rumors of Dan O'Dowd joining his former boss John Hart as part of the new Braves front office, with several sources, including one with the Rockies indicating that it is a possibility. Perhaps not coincidentally, these O'Dowd rumblings seem to be going similarly to how things go when the Rockies trade a player away, so at this point I wouldn't be shocked at all to see his tenure with the Rockies end this winter.

The 2014 MVP of every MLB club - Sports on Earth
Sports on Earth's Will Leitch picked the MVP for every team this season, for the Rockies he went with a choice that seems fairly obvious now but that no one would have picked at the start of the season, Corey Dickerson.

Rockies' Brandon Barnes made saving catch right after predicting it - The Denver Post
Now we know what Rockies outfielder Brandon Barnes was saying to the fans in left field at Petco Park after robbing a home run from the Padres' Rene Rivera in the eighth inning Tuesday night, and it was a big "I told you so." after he claimed to the fans he was going to rob a home run before the inning started.

Around MLB

Derek Jeter Isn't The Greatest Player Ever - Keith Olbermann
In this clip from his show on ESPN, Keith Olbermann does an excellent job of laying out the case that Derek Jeter is an overrated singles hitter who was somewhere between below-average and atrocious defensively whose counting stats are only as high as they are because he's retiring several years too late. I happen to agree with pretty much everything Olbermann says here.

Ranking the biggest potential X-factors for each MLB playoff team - SI.com
Tom Verducci ranks the X-factors for each of the 10 playoff teams, from J.D. Martinez in Detroit to Joe Panik in San Francisco.

The Tight NL Rookie Of The Year Race That Isn't - Fangraphs
At Fangraphs, Mike Petriello makes the case that Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom has significantly pulled away from the Reds' Billy Hamilton in the second half of the season and should be the overwhelming favorite for the NL Rookie of the Year award.

In an absolute home-run parade the Padres come from behind on a harsh lead, only to concede it. Inch by agonizing inch.

There's four games left in this 2014 Padres season. Tonight was the first of our final season trip to AT&T, and boy, a trip it was. If you tuned into this game expecting some calming, bittersweet background noise to send you off on the Friars' regular season then, like me, you were not physically or mentally prepared.

For five straight innings, our love and joy of 2014 Andrew Cashner was absolutely rocked. One in the first, one in the second, two in the third, one in the fourth, and one more in the fifth. Last week's NL Player of the Week was not treated to a nice final season start. In his 5 innings he gave up 6 runs in 8 hits, two of them being home runs.

Scratch it though, because I guarantee Cashner was mad enough for all of us about his outing.Bouncing back off a first miserable 5, Will Venable came to the rescue with a two-run HR in the 6th to make things bearable. Following suit, Yasmani Grandal blasts a homer of his own, slicing the lead in half after pinging the baseball off the foul pole and putting things at 3-6.

That's not where Grandal was about to stop though. Remember: the guy's got power.

Taken to the 7th with bases loaded, Grandal needed to set a little career record. His first 2-HR game was earned off a grand-slam into the walkway shores of McCovey, and the game was tilted in the favor of the good guys at 7-6. Immediately afterwards, Rene Rivera felt like he needed a home run as well so he bonked one into the left field bleachers and the Padres were sitting pretty at 8-6.

If your heart can't stand to read this article, at the very least watch this gif over and over until the tears dry.

Until the Giants ruined everything. And I mean everything.

Started on a check-swing deflection off the first base umpire, the Giants quickly put runners in scoring position. Then came an RBI-single. Then came another: RBI-single. And with things now painfully tied up, the Giants lay down a Padres Bunt™ was used against us (but successfully). So in a game with six home runs, it would all be decided by a bunt and a gangly awkward man resembling a baseball player sliding into home plate.

I give this game a solid NOT COOL rating.

If watching the broadcast wasn't roller-coastery enough for you, the win expectancy graph will visually demonstrate it for you.

Source: FanGraphs

A dozen GLB'rs showed up for the final four of the GBL Padres gamethread season.

I guess I went a little banana sandwich tonight. I had the most comments (34) and recs (10). abara had the highest rec'd comment (3) and collected 4 total.

Ian Kennedy broke 200 innings pitched for the 2014 season, and his teammates rewarded him with those things we've now learned are called "runs".

For the first time since 2010, the San Diego Padres have won more than 76 games (having stuck at that exact number the past two seasons). With tonight's 4-1 win over the San Francisco Giants, the Padres have notched their weird little place in Petco Park history with the winningest home record, and a the third best record since that very first opening day. Wasn't this season supposed to monumentally suck?

Well, it did in its own ways. But tonight it didn't. That's a huge thank you to our Ian Kennedy, who is sitting at the top of the Padres starting rotation with the highest WAR (2.7). Tonight he was golden, becoming the second pitcher on our current rotation to close out the season on a very positive note. He went 7 full innings giving up only 4 hits, an unearned run, and 2 walks with 6 strikeouts.

Despite a bare-handed error from Jedd Gyorko after the ninja feed from Alexi Amarista, the defense was working in the way of the Ninja. A one-two-three inning in the first highlighted by a dive from Cory Spangenberg to save a base-hit from Joe Panik, the Padres and their defense were easily on pace tonight to completely shutout the Gnats. Which would have had been pretty useful 24 hours ago.

Being in such close proximity to the Little Ninja, some  of the powers rub off on you.

Our scoring started early in the first when last night's hero Yasmani Grandal knocked the other hero Will Venable in with an RBI-single. Things calmed down until the 6th when a very, very large double plated Gyorko. Now with the score 2-1, Vogelsong was already a tad bid shaken up.

Smethxy smacks one, disappointingly, off the wall. Sad Seth is the most hearbreaking thing ever.

With runners now on second and third, the third musketeer of last night's offensive parade was at the plate. Rene Rivera, who has been deemed the Demi Lovato of the ballclub, sacrificed his bat to drive in two more Padres runs. Some quick sprinting and a very attractive slide from Seth Smith would guarantee a lead of three and keep the game at 4-1 for the rest of the night.

Rivera makes all of Seth's dreams come true by getting him home, validated by a crisp uniform-dirtying slide that would have been otherwise missed out on.

The deadly combination of Kevin Quackenbush and Joaquin Benoit retired the champagne-popping-for-a-wild-card-berth Giants, and sent a gaggle of Panda-hat-toting fans back to their cable cars. Benoit wracked up his 11th save of the season, Kennedy notched his 13th win posting a 3.63 ERA for the season, and the Padres now have a clean shot at splitting/winning their final series of the season.

In terms of win expectancy things didn't truly go our way until that very sexy Seth Smith double, and once the closers came in, the Giants stayed down.

Source: FanGraphs

And with only THREE (now two) games left in the regular GLB season, only five of us showed up.

jodes, freelunch, tonoxtono and I carried the thread conversations tonight. rec counts were as follows: daveysapien (7), CurbEnthusiasm (1), jodes (2), freelunch (1), tonoxtono (1). And as Andy from The Office would say: The rest of you are dead to me.

Our Padres play their penultimate game of the season this afternoon and look to take the advantage in the series against the Giants. It's sure to be an interesting matchup tonight as Eric Stults faces off against former Friar, Jake Peavy.

Stults is coming off one of his stronger outings of the season, throwing 6 1/3 shutout innings at home against Colorado to earn the win and prevent a league-leading 18th loss. This will be his fourth start of the season against San Francisco after going 2-1 with a 3.45 ERA in his previous three. The one loss in that stretch, however, took place at AT&T Park and was his second shortest outing of the season at 2 2/3 innings. He gave up five runs, all earned, on seven hits and two walks before exiting the game in the 3rd.

Peavy toes the mound today trying to help the Giants avoid their 10th loss in 14 games. The veteran righty and three-time All Star hit a rough patch earlier this season, going 0-11 with a 5.45 ERA over 16 starts between Boston and SF before August 16th. He's turned around since then, compiling a 6-1 record and 1.31 ERA in eight starts. A win today for Peavy would be his fifth straight - a feat he hasn't accomplished since his career-best year with the Padres in 2007.

Tune in at 1:05 PT today to watch our boys battle a former fan favorite and try to go ahead in the series.

There's a very short list of things more weird than watching Jake Peavy throw against your Padres in the second to last game of the season. What's not weird is Eric Stults getting minimal run support when he decides to pitch well.

It stings to say it, but as of today there were only two more games left in the regular season for the San Diego Padres. To make matters worse, we had to spend one of them watching former beloved Friar Jake Peavy pitch against us (with the only current Padres who were on the squad during Peavy's tenure being Will Venable and Tim Stauffer). To make things really weird, the first game of Bud Black's Padre career featured Jake on the mound against.. the San Fransisco Giants.

Today's awkward opponent tossed against our Eric Stults. One thing both players had in common were abysmal run support. By the end of the day, it was Eric Stults that reigned supreme as the offensively-unsupported king. Stults went 7 full innings giving up only one earned run on six hits, and striking out five. Peavy was pressured a whole lot more, but maintained his composure with 1 earned run despite giving up 3 walks.

The singular San Diego run came in the form of a Yasmani Grandal sacrifice fly in the top of the 5th and is now accounting for 7 RBI's for this final four-game series. The Gnats responded with a pair of Brandons; Belt in the 1st with an RBI double, and Crawford in the 8th on a bases-loaded two-out two-run RBI single.

Not too many highlights for the Pads today. Not when you're leaving nine on base and going 0 for gosh dang 7 with RISP. Alexi Amarista had a very attractive defensive play, which should be considered nothing short of expected from him if you're familiar with him at all.

At this point in the season are plays like this even considered a highlight? The Little Ninja has been making diving plays and star-hanging outs look routine for the past 3 months straight.

But the boys dropped the third game of the series and now are forced to collect a win tomorrow if they want to end the season not losing a series to Frisco. Despite this, the Padres still have a leg up on the Gnats, with a 10-7 season record against them.

Tomorrow fans will get to see Robbie Erlin close out the season against a newcomer from Triple-A Fresno Chris Heston. Robbie has been the fill-in for Tyson Ross' last start, and threw 83 pitches in his last week, holding on to a 4.53 ERA with a 1.34 WHIP. He's sitting at about 60 innings pitched this season, and with 45 strikeouts could easily close out the Padres' 2014 on the most positive note possible.

Win expectancy certainly was never leaning towards the Friars, and pushed in favor of the bad guys when our RBI was earned off a measly sacrifice fly.

Source: FanGraphs

Just one more GLB'r than last night's win showed up for today's second-to-last game.

And B Cres collected the only rec.