As a Padres fan, Will Venable is one of those players that has always irritated me.  He has so much potential but only on rare occasions do you actually see evidence of his greatness.  The diving catches, the walk off homers, etc. Like, you know Venable has a great smile but you rarely see it.  Why's he always trying to look so stern?

Years ago in a Spring Training game in Peoria, we witnessed Venable hit a home run over the batter's eye.  I practically jizzed my pants.  Then on the other hand there's the hundreds of times he's insisted on pulling a ball and grounded softly to first base.  It's his inconsistency that just waters down my enthusiasm for him.  This isn't a deal that excites me at all, but it's a good one for baseball reasons.  Huzzah!

I pretty much agree with what everybody is saying on the internets.  They think the deal is 93% fresh, the baseball equivalent of The Fantastic Mr. Fox.  I think I like the movie a lot more than Venable though.

Apologies to RottenTomatoes.com

Will Venable's extension shines light on rare bright spot for Padres | The Strike Zone - SI.com
Given that he’s averaged 2.5 WAR per year from 2010-2013, the two-year extension, which covers the remainder of his arbitration eligibility (he’s a Super Two), should easily be worth the money.

The Padres Want More Will Venable | FanGraphs Baseball
Even if that added power is somewhat due to bringing in the fences — PetCo used to suppress home runs by lefties by as much as 20% and now might only be suppressing them 6% — that sort of package is still a great fit at a great price.

Venable extension a good bet | UTSanDiego.com
Of course, the hope is that something has clicked for Venable. If that’s the case, Venable’s extension is the sort of deal that will give general manager Josh Byrnes the financial flexibility to piece this thing together over the next few years.

Will Venable: Did San Diego Padres Do Right Thing Extending RF?
Venable will be the first to admit that he has not put forth an ideal performance in recent years. However, there is no denying that he turned on the afterburners last season and is building on that this year. San Diego recognizes that he continues to get better in each passing season, which is why it is critical they make him apart of their future.

Padres ink Will Venable to two-year deal | San Diego Reader
It is a good contract for the Padres because they don’t have to run the risk of Venable making more money in the arbitration process, as Will still has two years left on his status as arbitration eligible, which becomes a moot point thanks to this deal.

Twitter / Steve_Adler:
Venable would have easily made that money and more in arbitration. Like Venable or not, the FO did well today.

Twitter / 619Sports
Smart move by the #Padres locking Venable out of his arb years for 2/8.5M. Still a very movable contract if need be, even more so now.

Venable Contract Analysis | Friarhood
There is a lot of tread left on those tires. It can be argued Venable’s arrow is still pointing up. He may very well break out next year. Maybe he will wind up being the clean-up hitter in 2014? Just a thought. But a great contract for the team.

Twitter / Mickey Koke:
That's a reasonable salary raise.

Twitter / Tom Krasovic
Good for Will Venable. Lost a lot of development time to basketball. Has made himself into a big leaguer. #Padresextension.

Twitter / LeftCoastBias
Venable, as a platoon pre-breakout was worth $4.25/yr. If even a percentage of what we’re seeing is true…

Twitter / RJsFro
2012 - 4th place finish...Byrnes brings EVERYONE back. 2013 - last place currently...Brynes is bringing EVERYONE THE F BACK AGAIN!!

Twitter / Ducksnorts
Streaky or not, Venable is a useful player. #Padres need those.

Twitter / Ben Higgins
Bottom line, the Padres were keeping Will Venable. Now, they have cost certainty about it. Hard to argue against the contract.

The San Diego Padres have gone through many changes in the past few years. They've changed ownership, they've completely changed front offices, and they're currently trying to change themselves from a losing organization into a winning one. They took a step closer to that goal on Tuesday as they bought out Will Venable's final two years of salary arbitration. The deal will cover Venable's age 31 and 32 seasons.

The Player

As mentioned earlier, the Padres have been going through a lot of changes. Will Venable has been in San Diego for all of them. As a Super Two player, Venable entered the 2012-2013 off season heading into his second year of arbitration. After putting up a modest two-WAR season, he reached an agreement with the Padres for a one-year deal worth $2.675 million. Fortunately for the Padres and Venable, he then broke out during the 2013 season.

Now, "break out" is a phrase that one always must be careful with, but Venable certainly has increased his performance this year. While his walks are way down--at age 30, this is not exactly a great thing--his power numbers are surging. The most likely cause of said change is the change in Petco Park's dimensions--as seen in this article from Fangraphs' Jeff Sullivan.

Now, it would be short-sighted to simply say that the changes have helped Venable, but read about the changes at Petco here. The Padres made the bulk of their changes in right field--this helps Venable because Venable is a left-handed hitter, meaning that the porch is now shorter to his pull field. Could it be possible that Venable's increase to a 21% HR/FB ratio is a fluke? Yes. However, consider this split:

Will Venable home run rate in PETCO in 2013: 6.93% (14 homers in 202 AB)

Will Venable home run rate in PETCO all other years: 2.53% (19 homers in 751 AB)

Now consider this table that shows the Padres' home run rates at home:

Without doing too much work, we can see that so far 2013 results are really not too far from the norm in Petco. 2013 is not too dissimilar for 2010 and 2009. Due to this, we head to the home run tracker courtesy of ESPN Stats & Information. What this shows is that Will Venable is the champion of the short-porch home run to his pull field with ten dingers falling between 350 and 400 feet to right field. If you look at his 2012 chart you will see that Venable had just four of said homers in 2012.

Now, it is possible that Venable could simply be doing something different at the plate, but this seems rather unlikely. He's hitting a very similar GB/FB ratio in 2013 as he did in 2012, he's walking less, and he's striking out more. At 30 years old, it is also very unlikely that Venable is experiencing some kind of training-induced power surge (his average true home run distance has remained virtually unchanged over three years). Venable has capitalized on his team altering his home park, and now the Padres are about to cash in on that change.

Will Venable's Arb Buyout

Gaslamp Ball takes a peek.

The Deal

Two years/$8.5 million (4.25 AAV)

It's always wonderful to add average-or-better players to a roster, and it's even more wonderful to do so for a dollar amount that requires the player to produce less than a win in value. Now, it is important not to react too crazily to this deal. After all, if the most recent off season showed us anything it's that arbitration is a thing of the past. It is very unlikely that the Padres and Venable would have gone to arbitration either of the next two years, so this is about two things: 1) Venable gets guaranteed money that protects him from injuries and fall offs and 2) The Padres are "protected" from Will Venable continuing to snipe Petco's new right-field porch.

However, it would be silly to sell Venable short and only talk about his homers in the new Petco Park--after all, Venable was a good player before this year. He's averaged a steady two fWAR over the past four seasons with average defense and good base running mixed in with acceptable batting--keep in mind, Venable has not necessarily played a ton either as his two best seasons in terms of games played are 148 and 131.

Venable is an above-average player who has seen a change in ballpark dimensions truly help his numbers. This is something the Padres capitalized on as they continue to build a roster around the new Petco. There is often talk about "hitters parks" versus "pitchers parks", but one of the most important things in acquiring/projecting players is using specific park dimensions to predict home runs. With the changes in Petco, it's likely that Venable's performance is here to stay--to an extent--so buying him out now is better than waiting for him to repeat the perforamance.

The best part of this deal is that the Padres get Venable's age 31 and 32 seasons, which means they'll get him before he really begins the tail-end of his career. If he's still mashing homers towards right field in Petco by then, he'll likely pursue a decent free-agent contract. It's interesting to think that Venable perhaps would have never seen this career change without the changes in Petco's dimension.

Shortening the porches has led to more offense and a better Will Venable.

Where the Padres go from here

I doubt the Padres had Will Venable specifically in mind when they decided to shorten the dimensions in Petco, but he certainly has been the primary benefactor. The change has helped him so much that it might be fair to speculate that left-handed power hitters might not be as afraid of Petco as they had been in the past, which makes San Diego just a little bit more appealing to free agents. However, this is a minor aspect of the impact Venable's deal/performance might have.

The largest impact of getting this deal done will be on improving the Padres in the short-term, particularly with a possible Chase Headley extension. Unfortunately for the Padres--and for Chase--he hasn't followed up his MVP-esque season with another great year--he's simply been really good. Headley recently talked with Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times about his impending free agency and made it pretty clear that he's not just going to hand the Padres a discount. By getting Will Venable signed to a cheap deal, they free up assets to improve their odds of bringing back Headley for 2014 and beyond.

It's always a bit dicey to try to speculate what teams are trying to do, but left-handed hitters will benefit more than right-handed hitters from the change at Petco. Seeing as Will Venable is left-handed and Chase Headley sees most of his at-bats as a lefty against right-handed pitchers, it would not be surprising to see the Padres attempt to have both guys around in the future to take advantage of the shorter porch--along with other left-handed hitters. Buying out Venable's last two years of arbitration is another step in building a great Padres team.

. . .

A thank you to ESPN Stats and Information, Fangraphs, and Baseball Reference for the information that went into this article.

Ken Woolums is the Transactions Editor at Beyond The Box Score. You can follow him on Twitter @Wooly9109

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This afternoon the Padres and Giants will close out their series at Petco Park. San Diego will try to remain in sole possession of fourth place in the NL West by completing the sweep over San Francisco.

Padres pitching has been fantastic these past few games, and today Eric Stults will try to keep that trend going while putting an end to his winless stretch since the All-Star Break. The lefty is 0-5 with a 4.91 ERA in his last eight starts. His last time out, against the Dodgers, he gave up four runs in 5 1/3 innings of work. Stults has been much better at home, however, posting a 1.91 ERA over his last 11 starts at Petco Park while going 5-2 and keeping batters to a .206 average in that stretch. He is also 1-0 in his last two versus the Giants, most recently limiting them to just one run in six innings of work against them back in July. Stults may have trouble keeping Pablo Sandoval and Buster Posey off the bases, though. The former is batting .529 (9-for-17) all-time while the latter is a career .467 (7-for-15) hitter against the veteran southpaw.

Taking the mound for the Giants to try to prevent the sweep today will be Tim Lincecum. The last time Lincecum faced San Diego, back in July, he threw the first no-hitter in Petco Park history. The right-hander struck out 13 batters while throwing a career-high 148 pitches against the Padres. After that game, however, Lincecum went 1-4 in six starts while posting a 5.40 ERA. But he comes into today's matchup having won consecutive starts for the first time all year. His last time out, he kept the Diamondbacks scoreless for six innings leading up to a 1-0 victory for SF. He is a lifetime 12-6 against the Padres, including a 2-1 record with a 0.79 ERA in three starts against them this season.

Tune in a 3:40 this afternoon to see if the Padres can complete the sweep and avoid going back into a tie for last place in the NL West.

I'm just now getting around to reading Bill Shaikin's 8/31 article with quotes from Chase Headley.  Headley sounds eerily like Adrian Gonzalez when he expresses his concerns that his next contract will affect other MLB players' value if he takes the San Diego Discount.

Will Padres' September song have Chase Headley playing Dodgers' tune? - latimes.com

"My first choice would be to stay here," he said. "I love our coaching staff. I love a lot of the guys here. That said, you have to at least understand where you are positioned in the market. It doesn't benefit myself or the other players to go out and sign a deal just to sign a deal, without it being a good deal.

"I'm not actively trying to get to free agency, but trying to get what you are worth is important. It would be foolish not to at least pay attention. I'm not going to sell myself short."

He also sounds like he might regret not taking the biggest contract in Padres history when it was suggested to him mid-season.  His value was at an all time high coming off last season and still he wanted to wait until the off-season to talk about a deal. That's just insane unless he doesn't want to play for the Padres anymore.

"Most likely, if I do a deal in the offseason, there is a chance it could be potentially lower than a deal I could have done last offseason," Headley said. "I don't know until we look at it. I know this season isn't the statistical norm.

"Do I want to sign a bad contract coming off a bad year? Every season impacts the business side of it. It would have been great to have another season like last season. That's not the case."

The following quote is never a good sign for the Padres.

"At this stage of my career, I want to win," Headley said.

How many times have we heard that from former Padres?  No way he sticks around.

San Francisco Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval homered three times against the San Diego Padres on Wednesday in the Giants' 13-5 victory.

Sandoval took three different San Diego relievers deep, capping off his big day with an opposite-field three-run blast off of Dale Thayer in the top of the ninth inning. It was the Giants' sixth long ball of the game, setting a new single-game Petco Park record for home runs by a visiting team.

Sandoval finished the game 4 for 5 with six runs batted in. It was the second three-homer game of his career; the first came in Game 1 of the 2012 World Series. Sandoval was voted the most valuable player of that series, and became the first World Series MVP to hit three home runs in a game in the following season, per ESPN Stats and Info.

Sandoval now has seven career multi-home run games.

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So the big news today is that Chase Headley changed his walkup music, which is obviously why he hit a homer off of Tim Lincecum in the fifth inning. He might has well have been trying to put out a forest fire with a squirt gun, though. The Giants hammered Eric Stults for 7 runs (including 3 homers) in his 5.2 innings of work. The bullpen didn't fare much better, as Pablo Sandoval hit a home run off Brad Brach. And then another one while facing Brad Boxberger. And then got the hat trick against Dale Thayer. So, y'know, I'm just going to relish the fact that we won the series, have a beer, and enjoy tomorrow's off day.

Burch Smith gets another shot tomorrow as he opens the series against the Rockies' Juan Nicasio at 7:10 PM Friday. Get there early for Beerfest!

Faith Keeper led the comments (with 69, so get your jokes out now), and abara picked up a pair of recs.

At this point in the season back in 1998 the Padres had just claimed their 90th win.  That's better than any other team today.  The Braves are currently the best team in baseball and they only have 85 wins.  Think about that.

Of course the 1998 Yankees had 100 wins after 139 games, so I guess it's all relative.  Plus the 1998 Padres really sh_t the bed in September of that year.  They went 8-15 after their 90th win. Everyone was juiced up back then too, good thing we don't have that problem in today's game.

I don't really have a reason to bring any of this up, except to say the 2013 Padres suck nuts.

The Padres finally got a series win when the Giants came to town, but they were unable to complete the sweep as the pitching staff was hammered for 13 runs on 17 hits. After yesterday's off day, they will continue their stretch against NL West opponents as they welcome the Rockies to Petco Park to face them for the final time this season.

As the Padres continue to use this month to evaluate some of the younger players in their system, they will give Burch Smith another start in tonight's series opener. The rookie right-hander is in his fourth stint with the big league club this season, having appeared in six games overall. Tonight's outing will be his fourth carer start after making his first three back in May when Clayton Richard hit the disabled list and Tyson Ross was still coming back from injury and pitching out of the bullpen. Smith didn't fare too well in those previous starts, pitching a total of just 7 1/3 innings and giving up 15 runs on 16 hits. However, his performance at the triple-A level has earned him another shot in the bigs now that rosters are expanding with September callups. As a member of the Tucson Padres this season, he went 5-1 with a 3.39 ERA in 12 starts.  This time around, as the season winds down, he'll try to make more out of this opportunity and live up to his no. 9 ranking among Padres prospects.

Smith will be facing a Rockies team fresh off a winning homestand and looking to win consecutive road games for the first time in over two months. Tonight marks the beginning of a nine-game road trip for Colorado after having gone 5-4 at home this past week and a half. The Rockies have been pretty dominant over the Padres this season, taking 12 of the their 16 contests, including a 5-1 record at Petco Park coming into this series. They've also outscored them 96-62 over the course of the season.

They'll be sending Juan Nicasio to the mound to improve on a short but successful career against San Diego. In four career starts, spanning 25 1/3 innings, against the Padres, he is 2-0 with a 3.20 ERA. Only one of those took place this season. On June 9th, he gave up two runs and collected seven strikeouts while tossing six innings of a 10-inning Rockies win. In his most recent outing, Nicasio was tagged for six runs in 4 1/3 innings of work in a loss to the Reds. His inconsistency this season has been his main issue this season. Though he has a 6.00 ERA over his last seven starts, that included a stretch of three starts, prior to his outing against the Reds, in which he 2-0 with a 1.53 ERA.

The Padres, though coming off their series win over the Giants, remain below the Rockies by three games in the standings. Despite losing the final game against SF, they were able to put together a modest five runs, their highest offensive output in six games. Chase Headley returned to the lineup yesterday after missing six straight games with a sore back. He hit a home run and finished the game 1-for-3 with a walk. Headley has had a disappointing season following his breakout 2012 year. He'll be looking to at least close out his season on a high note, and a start tonight against Nicasio might help. Headley is a career 6-for-9 with two homers against the right-hander. However, last month he went hitless in 12 at-bats at Coors as the Padres dropped two of three games.

The final series of the season between these two teams will kick off at 7:10 tonight.

Last year, Leaf released the 2012 Leaf Memories set. It consisted of 49 cards based on the 1990 Leaf set, but the main attraction was the buyback inserts. What Leaf did was buy back 26 sets of 1990 Leaf, stamp each card with a serial number, and insert them into 2012 Leaf Memories packs. There were three tiers: silver (numbered /20), gold ( /5), and red (1/1).

I was excited when the product was announced, because it gave me more Joey Cora cards to chase for my super-collection. Well, not really more since they already existed in a way, but different ones. And since it's my goal to own as many copies as possible of every Joey Cora card, I've been keeping an eye out for these on eBay and online hobby shops since the product dropped. Since the Cora red 1/1 hasn't surfaced yet and I'm too poor and not depraved enough to pay $200 for a ten card box (yeah, seriously) just to have a very slim shot at pulling a Cora, I've focused on snagging up the silver and gold ones that are available on the open market. The silver ones are a story for another day,  a day when I have at least eleven of them.

These are three out of the five of these cards in existence. They aren't my favorite Joey Cora cards, but they definitely are my scarcest. It makes it a lot easier to collect every copy of a given card when there are so few of them. I only have about a dozen or so of his actual, unaltered 1990 Leaf cards, so I'm nowhere near the 60% completion mark there that I have on the gold Memories mini-set.

So, if you have any of these or any other regular old Joey Cora cards, holla at ya boy, as only old, out-of-touch people like me are still saying.

It was a game where Todd Helton's farewell tour was in full force, Chase Headley stole the show, and the San Diego Padres walked away with the win.

After scoring two runs off of rookie Burch Smith in the top of the first, Colorado's offense stayed quiet until the last inning.  Dexter Fowler led off the game with a line drive double, his 18th of the year, and moved to third on DJ LeMahieu's single.  Troy Tulowitzki drove in the first run of the game with a double to deep center, only a few feet away from Helton's late inning homer.  LeMahieu scored the second run of the game on the following play.

Juan Nicasio had a rough start, but cruised through the next few innings.  His fourth pitch of the game left the ballpark on a Will Veneble home run, followed immediately by a Chris Denorfia triple.  He cruised through the remainder of his outing, retiring 13 in a row at one point, and left after six innings of work.

Todd Helton's 13th home run of the year moved him into sole possession of 75th place on the all time home run leaders list, but more importantly, his 400 foot shot to deep center field put the Rockies ahead 3-2 in the ninth inning.  This would have been a very poetic addition to Helton's 2013 farewell tour, had it not been for the late inning surge from the Padres.

Chase Headley made his presence known, leading off the bottom of the ninth with a towering shot to left field that tied the game. Then, Rex Brothers walked Kyle Blanks to put the winning run aboard. Alexi Amarista followed that up with bunt base hit before Ronny Cedeno moved the runners over with a bunt of his own.  Now in deep trouble, the Rockies elected to walk the next batter and try to set up an inning ending double play, but Jesus Guzman hit a walk-off single down the third base line that proved out of the reach of Nolan Arenado.  The hit capped a come from behind San Diego 4-3 win.  It was an unusually shaky outing for Rex Brothers, who earned only his first loss of the season.

The Graph

Source: FanGraphs

The Rollcall

I'll be honest, I went to this game for Beerfest. A bunch of five dollar beers from local breweries, and there's baseball? That sounds like a great Friday night. But the way the Padres have played against the Rockies this season combined with Burch Smith's shaky major league track record didn't have me looking forward to a great game. I should have trusted in my team.

Smith didn't look like he was going to last long. He gave up three hits to start the game: a double to Dexter Fowler, a single to D.J. LeMahieu, and another double to Troy Tulowitzki. Fowler and LeMahieu would score before the inning was over. That was all he would allow through his five innings. He got into a couple jams in the third and the fifth, but did a great job getting out of them, recording seven strikeouts while only giving up four hits and four walks. Most importantly though, his offense had his back.

Will Venable led off the first with a home run to the Jack Deck in right field. Chris Denorfia followed that up with a triple to left, but the next three batters couldn't bring him in. He made up for it in the sixth inning, though. After drawing a leadoff walk, Deno got a great jump on a routine grounder to second off the bat of Jedd Gyorko. He saw a chance to take third and went for it. That's when Todd Helton threw the ball away. Tie game.

Things were knotted at two when Huston Street took the mound in the ninth. He put down three Rockies in a row. Unfortunately, he did after Helton drilled the ball to deep center field. That would have been a terrible way to lose the game, but Chase Headley had plans of his own, hitting a leadoff blast to left in the bottom of the inning. Then Kyle Blanks drew a walk. Alexi Amarista kept the rally going with a bunt single. Ronny Cedeño moved the runners over with a perfect sacrifice bunt. With one out, Nick Hundley was given a free pass to set up a double play. The Rockies weren't so lucky, as pinch hitter Jesus Guzman hit a screaming grounder down the third base line for a walkoff single.

Tyson Ross will try to keep the magic going against Tyler Chatwood at 5:40 PM tomorrow.

abara racked up the most comments and tied with jodes0405 for the most recs.

Saturday is luchador mask night at Petco Park. It's a pretty rad giveaway. If you're not convinced, just ask Jonny Dub.

Still not convinced? Let's see how Andrew Cashner feels about it.

Imagine that guy throwing 100+mph fastballs at you. You gonna swing at those pitches? I think not.

Unfortunately I don't think we'll be seeing Casha Libre taking the mound for our Padres anytime soon. So I present you, Gaslamp Ballers, with a challenge:

1. Go down to the ballpark and get your Padres luchador mask.
2. Put it on. Maybe take a quick trip to the restroom to "pull a Cashner*" and check out how badass you look in the mirror.
3. Take picture(s) of you wearing the mask at the game. Or later that night out in the Gaslamp or at home. Or the next day while doing chores or climbing a mountain or just walking about town.
4. Tweet** your pictures to @gaslampball and/or @GLBinterns.
5. ????
6. PROFIT!!!!

I might take all the awesome pictures you guys take and put them in a post so everyone can see all the awesomeness. But that means you guys have to actually take some pictures. Cool? Cool. Get to it, my GLBabies.

*not like THAT, you perv
** Don't have a Twitter? That's okay. Just post your picture down there in the comments. Or in a fanshot. Better yet? write a fanpost about your adventures while wearing your Padres luchador mask.

Last night Chris Denorfia was presented the Heart and Hustle Award by the MLB Players Alumni Association. This honor is presented to a player on each team who "demonstrates a passion for the game of baseball and best embodies the values, spirit, and tradition of the game."

Chris Denorfia acknowledged tonight as #Padres winner of @MLBPAA Heart & Hustle Award. Given award by @RJBBQ35pic.twitter.com/G0OeJfl0p3

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) September 7, 2013

We've seen the Denosaur's heart and hustle on display all throughout the season. On defense, whether he's diving for balls in the outfield...

... or making leaping catches at the wall...

... he's always going above and beyond to try and get the out.

And he has the same spirit and never-give-up attitude when he's at the plate racking up RBI...

... turning singles into doubles with his heads-up baserunning...

... knocking balls out of the park...

... and being our walkoff hero.

So it was a surprise to no one last night when Denorfia pulled off this amazing offensive display to tie the game in the 6th inning. Standing on first base as Jedd Gyorko grounded out, Deno hustled around second and safely slid into third when Todd Helton committed a throwing error to DJ LeMahieu. Recognizing the opportunity and going for it, Deno ran home, slid around Juan Nicasio to avoid the tag, and still managed to touch the plate.

Want to know why Chris Denorfia won the #Padres Heart and Hustle Award? You just witnessed it... #Wow! #TieBallgame

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) September 7, 2013

The Padres opened up the series with a win in walkoff fashion last night. In game 2, Tyson Ross will try to follow Burch Smith's solid outing with one of his own and help San Diego secure their second straight series win. After a rough start to his season, Ross is making a home for himself in the Padres rotation. Since he rejoined the rotation a month and a half ago, he's had a strong eight-start stretch in which he's posted a 2.45 ERA while keeping opponents batting just .197 and striking out six or more batters in each outing. Ross has had four career outings (two starts) against the Rockies. Both starts took place back in April during his first stint in the rotation, prior to his injury and trip to the DL. He went 0-1 with a 4.82 ERA in those starts. His two relief appearances spanned 3 1/3 innings in which he gave up one run.

Despite some strong pitching, Ross has been a victim of a lack of run support. The Padres have scored only one run in each of his last four starts and have scored a total of just 14 runs in his eight starts since rejoining the rotation. His most recent start was one of the more frustrating, as he kept the Dodgers to just one run while striking out a career-high ten batters in five innings of work, but ended up with a no-decision as the Padres dropped the game 2-1.

As Ross hopes for better run support in tonight's matchup, Rockies starter Tyler Chatwood just hopes to get through the game in one piece. After spending a month on the DL with elbow inflammation, Chatwood returned on Sunday only to leave in the 3rd inning with a bruised right thumb. The right-hander is 1-0 with a 6.57 ERA all-time against San Diego.

See if the Padres can clinch the series tonight as they take the field at 5:40.

Tyson Ross pitched a stellar game tonight. Three hits, two walks, and five strikeouts in seven shutout innings. He's allowed just one run in his last twelve innings. He had plenty of backup from the defense as they turned three double plays tonight, including two from the outfield.

He didn't have much run support, but the offense did get things started fast. Chris Denorfia and Jedd Gyorko hit a pair of singles, then Jesus Guzman drew a walk to load the bases. Alexi Amarista hit a single to score the only run for seven innings.

Luke Gregerson entered the game in the eighth, and that's when things got a little dicey. With one out, pinch-runner Charlie Culberson stole second. D.J. LeMahieu followed that with a line drive to left, and Culberson was off to the races. Denorfia threw a strike right to the plate, but Culberson came into home hard enough to knock the glove off of Nick Hundley.

There would be no win for Ross, but Gyorko made sure his start wasn't for nothing. He took Matt Belisle's first pitch all the way to the Jack Deck.

[Note by jodes0405, 09/07/13 9:00 PM PDT ] The ball was caught by an awesome Padres fan sporting his luchador mask.

After that, it was time for Huston Street to pick up another save. Michael Cuddyer hit a leadoff single to left. Todd Helton flied out in the same direction. One away. With Nolan Arenado at the plate, Cuddyer made a break for second, right before Arenado flied to center. Jedd Gyorko faked Cuddyer into believing it was a grounder and he was safe. Amarista had no problem catching him at first for the game-ending double play.

Ian Kennedy will go for the sweep against Chad Bettis at 1:10 PM tomorrow.

Friar Fever had a filthy 69 comments, and jodes0405 walked away with an impressive 5 recs.

The San Diego Padres clinched their first series victory over the Colorado Rockies this season with a 2-1 victory on Saturday at Petco Park.

Jedd Gyorko hit a solo home run off of Matt Belisle in the bottom of the eighth inning to break a 1-1 tie. The big hit ensured Tyson Ross' solid performance would not go to waste. Ross still wound up with a no-decision after the Rockies got on the board in the top half of the eighth, but his seven shutout innings, which included just three hits and a pair of walks, allowed the Padres a chance to win the game late.

Gyorko's long ball, an opposite-field shot that cleared the glove of a leaping Michael Cuddyer in right field, served as an immediate counter to DJ LeMahieu's game-tying single just minutes before. LeMahieu's hit was one of just six the Rockies had on the evening.

San Diego mustered only six hits off of Rockies pitchers, but Gyorko collected two of those. Gyorko's first hit helped extend a first inning that saw the Padres eventually score.

The Rockies mounted a couple of late threats, I guess you could say, but Troy Tulowitzki struck out looking to end the eighth and Cuddyer was doubled off of first base on Nolan Arenado's pop out for the last out of the game. Before you're too rough on Cuddy, he attempted a straight steal and was sliding into second base before Arenado's pop fly even reached its peak point.

Don't blame Cuddy, blame stealing.

Chad Bettis, who is still looking for his first big-league win, will oppose Ian Kennedy as the Rox try to avoid the sweep on Sunday.

Source: FanGraphs

The Padres clinched the series with a 2-1 victory last night so once again they find themselves in a position to sweep. But they're hoping for better results this time around after some poor pitching squandered their chance to sweep the Giants last week.

Ian Kennedy pitched one of his best games during that Giants series and he'll look to keep things rolling in today's series finale. He kept SF to just one run while striking out seven in six innings of work last Saturday. In his six outings so far as a Friar, Kennedy is 3-1 and despite a 4.04 ERA, he has allowed two runs or fewer four times. He has 14 career starts against the Rockies under his belt and though his record against them is 3-3, his 2.96 ERA is his lowest against any NL West team. He faced them twice this season when he was with the Diamondbacks, but both starts were at Coors Field where he struggled, going 0-1 with a 4.50 ERA. He has won each of his last two starts at Petco Park while posting a 0.69 ERA.

Kennedy's opponent today is an unfamiliar one to San Diego. Chad Bettis will make his first career start against the Padres in the series finale and he'll try to help the Rockies to just their sixth win in 22 tries on the road. The rookie is winless in his seven major league starts, going 0-3 with a 5.45 ERA. His last time out he gave up five runs in 4 2/3 innings against the Dodgers. It was his second straight game giving up at least four runs.

Today's game will be the last of the season between these two teams and San Diego will try to finish the series on a high note. They are just 6-12 against the Rockies overall and 3-5 against them at Petco Park this year. A sweep today would be their first over Colorado since 2011 at Coors Field. It would also be their first sweep against the Rockies at home in seven years. Furthermore, a win today would pull San Diego even with Colorado for third place in the division.

Watch as the season series comes to a close this afternoon starting at 1:10.

Go Ian!

Go offense; rough up the rookie!

Kennedy got into trouble in the third when Corey Dickerson hit a triple off the glove of Raymond Fuentes and then walked future Mr. Laura McKeeman Josh Rutledge. He looked as though he was going to work his way out of the jam when he struck out Troy Tulowitzki for the second out, but Michael Cuddyer took a 2-2 changeup to left field to put the Rockies on the board. The Padres were ready to get that run back in the bottom of the inning. Raymond Fuentes and Rene Rivera hit back to back singles to start the inning, but then Kennedy struck out on a foul bunt. Will Venable wasn't much more help, hitting a grounder to first. He beat out the double play, leaving runners on the corners. With Alexi Amarista at the plate, Fuentes saw his opportunity on a wild pitch and sprinted for home. He was met at the plate by catcher Jordan Pacheco. According to home plate umpire Todd Tichenor, Pacheco was there first. According to video, Fuentes was. Unfortunately, a human being's fallible eyes take precedence over the incontrovertible evidence of high definition video. 1-0, Rockies.

Things got worse in the fourth, as Charlie Blackmon reached second when Ronny Cedeño couldn't handle a ground ball. Then Pacheco hurt the Padres again, this time by knocking a double to left. The Friars got another shot in the bottom of the fifth when a pair of singles from Kyle Blanks and Ronny Cedeño put runners on the corners with nobody out. Fuentes hit a grounder to third and Blanks was caught in a rundown. He managed to dodge Roy Oswalt's tag, but Tichenor ruled that he left the basepath. I'm not convinced, and neither was Tony Gwynn. Cedeño moved to third in the chaos and then scored on a sacrifice fly from Rivera. I'm pretty sure Tichenor objected to that, too, but there was nothing he could do.

After a rousing singalong of Take Me Out To The Ballgame, the Padre bats were finally ready to do some real damage. Chase Headley drew a leadoff walk. He was followed by a pair of singles from Blanks and Cedeño to load the bases. After Fuentes hit a shallow fly out, Jesus Guzman came up in place of Rene Rivera and drew a four pitch walk to tie the game. Birthday boy Nick Hundley was then called upon to hit for pitcher Nick Vincent, and he laced an 0-2 pitch down the left field line for a bases clearing double. 5-2, Padres. Suck it, Tichenor.

It was all on the bullpen from there. Tim Stauffer took over in the top of the eighth and punched out the side. Then Huston Street sent the Rockies down in order to earn his 29th save of the season. With this sweep, the Padres are now tied for third place.

The boys are on a happy flight to Philadelphia now. Andrew Cashner will take on Tyler Cloyd at 4:05 PM Tuesday.

TheThinGwynn dominated the thread with 61 comments and 9 recs.

The Rockies fell to 66-78 on the year after being swept in San Diego on a sun drenched Sunday afternoon. The Rockies offense was once again shut down and Roy Oswalt's return did not go as planned.

Starter Chad Bettis pitched the best he has all year going three innings and allowing just two singles while striking out four. The plan was to limit Bettis' action today so that Roy Oswalt could make his return and throw a few innings. Bettis did his part and Oswalt was pitching fairly well before falling apart in the seventh.

In the seventh, with the Rockies nursing a 2-1 lead, the Padres loaded the bases with nobody out. Oswalt induced a shallow fly to right off the bat of Reymond Fuentes to record the first out, but he then walked pinch-hitter Jesus Guzman to allow the tying run to score for San Diego. With the score knotted at two, Weiss elected to bring on Wilton Lopez with one out and the bases juiced. However, Lopez allowed a bases clearing double to Nick Hundley, making the score 5-2, before working out of the inning. All five Padres runs were charged to Oswalt. Mitchell Boggs then pitched a scoreless eighth.

While the Rockies did have a 2-0 lead in this one, they never really felt in control. They got lone runs in the third and fourth innings as Michael Cuddyer and Jordan Pacheco both had RBI doubles, but they managed just two base runners the rest of the way, one of which was a single from Oswalt. The Rockies, who typically swing the bats well at PETCO, were held completely in check all series, including striking out 13 times today. Troy Tulowitzki and Nolan Arenado both went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts.

The lone bright spots? Josh Rutledge continues to swing a hot September bat as he went 2-for-3 with a walk. Michael Cuddyer still remains just two points out of the batting title lead. And Chad Bettis looked very good today. I'm not sure where exactly the Rockies want to put Bettis in the future, but a nice eighth and ninth combo could be Bettis and Brothers. Time will tell.

What's next for the Rockies? A three game set at horrorville, aka San Francisco. The action begins at 8:15 MT with Jhoulys Chacin (13-8 3.16) facing off against Tim Linecum (9-13 4.50)

Source: FanGraphs