After a pair of embarrassing losses, Yonder Alonso finally turned things around. He had some help from Chris Denorfia and Rene Rivera, who knocked in the other three San Diego runs. Also on the afternoon's list of top performers was Tyson Ross, who allowed one earned run in his seven innings of work.

The Padres got on the board first in the third inning. Jace Peterson took one for the team to reach first before moving to second on Ross's bunt. Jace hustled in for the first run courtesy of Denorfia's line drive to right field. The Diamondbacks answered back immediately as Paul Goldschmidt homered in the top of the fourth. Ross retired the next two batters and was poised to finish the inning without any more damage when Cody Ross reached first on Everth Cabrera's error. A pair of singles from Ender Inciarte and Tuffy Gosewisch (I swear I didn't make that name up) brought Ross and Enciarte two unearned runs. Arizona didn't hold the lead for long. A pair of singles from Cameron Maybin and Will Venable set the stage for Rene Rivera. With two outs, Rivera doubled to left, scoring both baserunners to knot the game at three.

There was no more scoring until the bottom of the ninth. Maybin led off the inning, but was called out on a grounder to second. Bud Black challenged successfully, putting the winning run on first with nobody out. After Venable struck out, Rivera picked up his second double of the night to move Maybin to third. With one out, Alonso just needed a weak ground ball to send the speedy Maybin home. And that's how the Padres avoided being swept by the Diamondbacks.

Eric Stults opens the series against the Royals tomorrow at 7:10 PM. He'll face the red-hot Yordano Ventura.

Conor42 led the comments and tied for the recs lead with abara at 2. I know it was Sunday, but up your game tomorrow, folks.

As I mentioned yesterday, I recently acquired my first 1-of-1 card. If you want to get technical, it's not actually a card; it's a printing plate that was used to make cards. For the last few years, Topps has been taking the various printing plates used to make their cards and inserting them into packs after the print run was completed.

This one, as it says on the back, is the black plate used in making Alexi Amarista's card from last year's Topps Update set. It was Alexi's first Topps card as a member of the Padres, and was long overdue since he's been with the team since early 2012. Seems like they would have included him in the 2012 Update set or Series 1 or 2 in 2013, but it was worth the wait. Since the fifty shades of gray shown above only tell a fraction of the story, here's what the finished product looks like:

That's everything I could ask for from an Alexi Amarista card. It captures his essence down to every detail: his enthusiasm, that smile, dirty pants, and the fact that he's far shorter than all of his teammates. The day it came out was the day it became my favorite non-Cora card of all time, so it's cool to now own part of what made it happen.

When Kyle Blanks hit a two-out, three-run homer in the sixth inning of Sunday's game he not only gave El Paso a 4-3 lead, he also moved into a tie for second place in the Pacific Coast League with nine home runs. Blanks and Reno first baseman Nick Evans now trail Oklahoma City first baseman Jonathan Singleton by one. However, Blanks has far fewer plate appearances than Singleton or, in fact, anyone with even seven homers.

Blanks' slugging percentage is also second in the league, his .651 mark trailing only Evans' .682.  His three RBI pushed his season total to a team-high 20. He trails 15 players, with Singleton and two others topping the list with 28. Also ahead of Blanks on the RBI leaderboard are two former Friar farmhands. San Diego native and 2008 first-rounder Allan Dykstra, now with the Mets' affiliate in Las Vegas, has 23 while Sacramento's Nate Freiman has recorded 24.

The gargantuan Blanks should get his next chance to tie or even take the lead Monday evening at 5:35 PDT when the Chihuahuas go for the four-game sweep over Sacramento. Unless he gets a rare day off, he'll be facing nine-year minor league veteran Arnold Leon, who is exactly five days older than him. The two have never faced each other; this is their first year at the same level, and Blanks started the game on the bench when Leon took on the Chihuahuas earlier this season. Regardless of anything Blanks does short of murder, his doings will take a backseat to top prospect Matt Wisler's first AAA start. That seems noteworthy enough to recap no matter how it goes, so tune in tomorrow-- same (baseball) bat time, same (baseball) bat site.

Hopefully everyone is having a great Cinco de Mayo, I know I will as I stuff my face with tacos. The D-backs head to Milwaukee to face the Brewers after taking 2 games in San Diego.

Quotables

(Kendrick and Hall) are both very, very disappointed, and rightfully so. When you spend $110 million and you're 9-22 at the end of April, I wouldn't be happy, either. I'm also disappointed, but I still believe in the core group. I think they will get better. Will I be around to see it? I don't know.

- Kevin Towers

Daily D-backs

D-backs dealt walk-off loss by Padres in series finale | foxsports.com
The Diamondbacks came into their three-game series against the Padres with the worst record and worst ERA in the majors. The D-backs won the first two games and took a 3-1 lead in the fourth inning on Sunday, but they couldn't finish off the sweep, as they allowed the Padres tie it and then win it 4-3 in walk-off fashion.

Diamondbacks can't complete sweep of the Padres | azcentral.com
It was an afternoon that resulted in yet another loss in a season overflowing with them. But regardless of whether you believe in moral victories, there's no denying this was a weekend that represented more progress for the Diamondbacks.

Starting Pitchers start to find its form | arizonasports.com
After 24 games, the only place the Arizona Diamondbacks' rotation could go was up. At the time, Arizona's five-man unit led the league with the fewest quality starts and the worst ERA. They also were in the bottom five in WHIP, opponent batting average and opponent on-base percentage. While its ranking in those respective categories hasn't exactly improved all that much, the desired results have started to come.

Brandon McCarthy's workouts keeping shoulder healthy | azcentral.com
For five consecutive years, McCarthy has landed on the disabled list with shoulder problems, and each time it's popped up between mid-May and early-June. No matter what he's tried — whether it be changing his workouts and throwing regimen — he hasn't been able to shake it.

D-backs GM Towers worried about job security | Yahoo Sports
Kevin Towers recently told MLB.com that he is not sure how much longer he will be with the team. Towers acknowledged that Diamondbacks managing partner Ken Kendrick and president Derrick Hall are disappointed in the team's slow start and that his job may be at stake.

Around the MLB

The Worst of the Best: The Month’s Wildest Swings | FanGraphs Baseball
Here's the first installment of baseball's wildest swings.

Video: Baker's walk-off RBI double | MLB.com
Jeff Baker smacks a double, the double smacks back.

Video: Stanton's go-ahead solo shot | MLB.com
This ball left the yard at 119.9 mph, tying the MLB record.

John Kruk's eyes never once left these hot dogs

Yasiel Puig bat-flip
It's a 9.

All-Prospect Team: April Edition | BaseballAmerica.com
Aaron Blair makes an appearance and another familiar pitching arm finds his way back to relevance.

A look through the entire organization to see what kind of pitching depth the club has going into the 2014 MLB draft.

The Padres' minor league pitching depth is at the moment both shallow and deep. It was not that long ago that the team had very little pitching depth. The team rushed promotions of guys like Mat Latos, Josh Geer, Cesar Carrillo, Cory Luebke and Wade LeBlanc and tried out guys like Walter Silva and Josh Banks to try to help the big league club. Some key drafts and trades got it to the point where the lower minors had depth, but the upper minors had a dearth. The team was more patient with some these pitchers and so you might remember these days as ones where the team had to call upon the likes of Dustin Moseley, Jeff Suppan, Kip Wells, Ross Ohlendorf, Jason Marquis, Eric Stults and Andrew Werner. Eventually promotions to the majors came for guys like Joe Wieland and Casey Kelly only to see them get hurt. Still there was and still is depth plus potential for more if guys return to health.

Despite some very good bullpens over the years the Padres have rarely produced quality major league bullpen arms for their own club. Guys like Heath Bell, Luke Gregerson, Akinori Otsuka, Scott Linebrink, Joe Thatcher, Mike Adams and Huston Street have all come from trades plus one free agent signing in Otsuka. The team now has more talent in that area than it has ever had before.

Let's lay out some ground rules before evaluating. For each level I will use 4 categories: Elite, top, promising and depth. For the majors elite means established an All Star caliber pitcher. Top means an established, dependable, sometimes elite guy. Basically one of the top 100 starters or top 50 relievers. Promising means the team has control of the player for 4 or more seasons and has potential to become a dependable starter. Depth means that the team has multiple years of control left and could count on these guys to eat innings. For the minors Elite is a top 100 prospect. Top is a guy that looks on the path to a future big league career. Think B- grade or higher if you look at a minorleagueball.com list. Promising prospects are one of the top 30 prospects in the organization. Depth prospects sit just outside that, but can't be counted out.

Majors

Elite: Huston Street.

Top: Andrew Cashner, Ian Kennedy, Tyson Ross and Joaquin Benoit.

Promising: Robbie Erlin, Donn Roach, Alex Torres and Nick Vincent

Depth: Eric Stults, Dale Thayer, Cory Luebke and Tim Stauffer

Grade: B. A good mix of depth. Some upside for Cashner to possibly reach that elite level that the staff desperately needs. However, given his previous results and limited future control (same goes for Ross) the depth he gives the system is only short term for now. Kennedy, Benoit, Stauffer and Street provide even shorter term depth. However, Erlin, Roach, Torres and Vincent could be around for a long time.

AAA

Elite: Matt Wisler

Top: Casey Kelly, Burch Smith, Keyvius Sampson

Promising: Juan Oramas, Joe Wieland

Depth: Kevin Quackenbush

Grade: A-. When the year started, it looked like the El Paso Chihuahuas would have solid rotation depth. With Kelly and Wieland on the mend and Erlin, Roach and Burch Smith all looking ticketed for the Padres' highest farm system club, it seemed like a logjam would occur. Since then, big league injury recurrences to Cory Luebke and Josh Johnson forced promotions for Roach and Erlin. Kelly, Smith and Wieland's own injuries prevented them from starting the season healthy. Then much of the depth lay with guys who needed to return from injury, a couple of still young pitchers (Sampson and Oramas) who will need at least a full season or more in AAA and some decent bullpen arms. And now Matt Wisler has just joined the squad. He is one of the few elite prospects on the club. In addition, Kelly's return from injury has already commenced as he is building up stamina with Lake Elsinore before joining the club later in the season.

AA

Elite: None

Top: Jesse Hahn

Promising: None

Depth: Johnny Barbato, , Leonel Campos, Justin Hancock, James Needy, Adys Portillo, Devin Jones

Grade: C+. Just like the AAA team it appeared there would be an embarrassment of riches in AA as well as some of those arms that didn't fit in the majors or AAA would spill down to the San Antonio club. However, all those injuries meant that everyone that could go to AAA did. For a while that did not include Matt Wisler, but as of last Friday it now does, which changes the depth in AA tremendously. Still, offseason acquisition Jesse Hahn remains, although limited as the team keeps his innings at a minimum as he continues to build stamina after Tommy John surgery a couple years ago. There are also a lot of sleeper prospects here, which when you play the odds usually results in at least one big leaguer contributor.

A+

Elite: Max Fried

Top: Zach Eflin, Joe Ross

Promising: None

Depth: Trevor Gott, Cory Hebner, Roman Madrid, Christopher Nunn, Ruben Mejia, Adam Cimber

Grade: B+. This borderlines on A-, but Fried has yet to pitch in a competitive game this year. Eflin and Ross have made up for it by looking like they could be elite prospects. Ross' stock was down at the end of last season, but at the rate he's going he could be a top 50 prospect come the end of the season. We'll see. The depth here looks like it could produce a major league reliever or two some day. Madrid had a very good season with the TinCaps in 2013, but has yet to pitch this year due to injury.

A

Elite: None

Top: None

Promising: Adrian De Horta, Pete Kelich, Walker Weickel

Depth: Andrew Lockett, Tayron Guerrero, Bryan Verbitsky, Coby Cowgill

Grade: C. Just barely a passing grade. Last year this was the most promising staff in the organization, but after a 2013 draft that focused on hitting it was dealt a blow in 2014. Still there are some promising arms year that need time. I think there's at least one future major league arm here and a couple of these guys could move fast if things start to click.

Others

Elite: None

Top: None

Promising: Odrisamer Despaigne, Erik Schoenrock

Depth: Jaimito Lebron

Grade: C+. This is a hard part of the organization to grade. In reality, the bulk of the depth here comes from the upcoming draft. Despaigne just signed for $1 million, which is a lot compared to the 16 year olds that get signed, but not a lot compared to other Cubans. Schoenrock was mentioned as a prospect by John Sickels, but has yet to make his 2014 debut, so he gets put here. Jamito Lebron is a Dominican teenager the Padres signed to a decent bonus last year. International signings are probably the only way to make an impact here since most of the youngest promising pitchers should be in Fort Wayne. That being said, there have been years where this part of the organization was deeper. The lower level minor league pitching looks like a definite need in the 2014 draft.

I had to double-check to make sure I hadn't made this quiz before because it seems like such an obvious topic. Obviously I hadn't, because here we are.

There have been 18 instances of a Padres player driving in 100 runs in a season, accomplished by 13 different guys. As I was putting together this quiz I became fascinated by the breakdown of 100 RBI seasons by decade:

'70s: 2
'80s: 0
'90s: 8
'00s: 6
'10s: 2

Only four players in the '80s surpassed even 90 RBI. Terry Kennedy came the closest, with 98 in 1983 and 97 the year before. Bearing in mind to not bother typing the names of anyone who played for San Diego solely in the '80s, three minutes should be more than enough time to knock out the ones you know for sure and to make educated guesses on the others.

After you finish up, log your results in the poll below and don't forget to use spoiler bars over names where applicable in your comments.

San Diego beer. San Diego baseball.

The San Diego Padres couldn't have planned this years Spring Beerfest any better. Preceding a stammering 2-0 loss to the last-place Diamondbacks; having everybody load their bodies with alcohol in a celebration of beer to prepare ourselves for a heart-wrenching game was really the best case scenario.

There was the typical from Anheuser-Busch, Kona, Ballast Point, Stone, MillerCoors, Pacifico, Mission, Green Flash, and Karl Strauss. Tasty stuff for a $5 deal, but very far from being the main attraction. Park at the Park was featuring some damn-good stuff from:

Aztec Brewing - Hibiscus Wheat & Noche de Los Muertos

Saint Archer Brewing Co. - White Ale & IPA

Coronado Brewing Company - Islander IPA & Orange Avenue Wit

The Lost Abby/Port Brewing Company - Beer & Beer

AleSmith Brewing Co.- AleSmith IPA & Nut Brown

Manzanita Brewing Co. - Rustic Horizon Red & Prospect Pale Ale

Iron Fist Brewing Co. -Nelson the Impaler & Dubbel Fisted

Black Market Brewing Co. - Hefeweizen & Shipwrecked

Modern Times Brewing Co.- Black House & Lomaland

Helm's Brewing Co.- Beer & Beer

Each craft/microbrewery brought their two tastiest to show off, and a few spare to appease the thirsty crowd with all beers at $5 apiece by purchasing a $5 "Friar Fund" voucher. The park atmosphere also provided music, food, photobooths, and foosball/ping-pong tables that settled in an archetypal breezy 82° San Diego day.

Just in case you weren't 100.67% positive what the whole deal here was.

The layout was simple, with booths wrapped around the baseball diamond. Even more rested at the top of the park hill next to Mr. Padre's statue, and there was plenty of room to roam around and find every stout, IPA, pale ale, etc. to your heart's desire.

An easy-to-read-while-buzzed map of Park at the Park.

"First pour" was at 5pm, and people slowly filled in over the first half hour. At the start of the day it was spacious with a waiting time under a minute at each booth. Over the course of time people packed in, and the elbow-to-elbow crowd hiked the waiting time to around 10 minutes, though the quality of product still justified the wait.

Now I'm not much of a drinker. I'll grab a beer at a game, party, or whenever there's a burrito involved. But when at a Beerfest, in one of the nations top beer cities, in the back yard of the nation's greatest beer ballpark; I had to try something rad. I've had some decent IPA's and Pale Ales, so I wanted to try something a bit different.

"Noche de Los Muertos", an imperial stout brewed with cinnamon spice.

I'm a big fan of Mexican beer, and other than the booths of the typical Pacifico and Corona; Aztec Brewery looked like a safe bet in that vein. The company originated in Mexico, but died out in San Diego until the brand was brought back to life in 2008. Their "Día de Los Muertos" themed "Noche de Los Muertos" caught my eye.

It ended up being a unique, malty stout that had a taste of coffee, chocolate, and brown sugar with light peppery cinnamon and caramel. Something that was completely on the opposite spectrum of what I normally drink; but was pleasantly surprising. It gave me something that could hold its own as both tasty and refreshing while I walked around, talked with friends, and took in the atmosphere. It was a good embodiment of what's so damn enjoyable about Beerfest at Petco Park and what's so great about Petco Park:

Sunny skies. Quality beer. Padres baseball.

The venue remained a perfect spot as shown from Beerfests in the past and present. The weather couldn't have been more San Diegan, and there was just the right amount of people in attendance; keeping it social but not overwhelming. Tie that in with the convenient Hodad's and Phil's BBQ carts right in front of your face and you've got a winning combination; which is something that was very desperately needed that day.

The next Padres Beerfest will be held on Friday, June 6.

Tweets about "#PadresBeerfest"

Team home run leader gets let go in favor of AAA team's home run leader.

Kyle Blanks has worn a Padres uniform every year from 2009 to 2013 and he will again in 2014. After slugging 9 home runs for AAA El Paso, the 6'6 power hitting first baseman/outfielder returns the Padres today. If Blanks had hit one more dinger for the Chihuahuas he would have reach double digits for a AAA club 3 times in his career. A feat he has only replicated once in the majors (2009). He has never completed a full season in AAA as every time he has reached or been sent down to that level the big league club has come calling midseason. The 27 year old should expect to start against left handing pitching, pinch hit and perhaps steal some other starts elsewhere.

With this call up Kyle Blanks will officially run out of option years at the end of the season. The team will no longer be able to freely shuffle him back and forth from the minors. The date was also quick approaching where the Padres could preserve another year of team control before free agency for Blanks. He has accumulated 4 years and 32 days of service time to this point. The season started 36 days ago. Perhaps he reached that date and will now be a free agent in 2017. If not, it seems a little odd that the team could not wait a little longer. But not too odd given how bad the offense has been.

The countermove is the designating for assignment of Xavier Nady. Perhaps the writing was on the wall for this move yesterday when Nady was benched against a left handed starting pitcher. If Bud Black was not willing to platoon the career lefty masher, then what use is he on the roster? Nady's 2014 numbers are not much to write home about, but he did provide 3 home runs, which leads the team in his second go-around with the club.

Our Padres are coming off an exciting win to close out the series against the Diamondbacks. Tonight they welcome the Royals to Petco Park to continue their homestand.

The Royals are seeking their first ever win in San Diego, but Eric Stults will try to put a halt on those plans as he takes the mound for the series opener for his first career start against KC. Stults pitched his shortest outing since 2009 on Tuesday in San Francisco. He only lasted 2 2/3 innings while giving up five runs to tie a season high. This was after posting a 1.86 ERA in his prior four starts.

Pitching opposite Stults will be Yordano Ventura who hopes to take advantage of the struggling Padres offense and help put an end to the Royals' four-game losing streak, during which the pitching staff has posted an 8.00 ERA. But Kansas City has won both of Ventura's last two starts behind his 13 scoreless innings on the mound. The right-hander has posted a 1.50 ERA on the season, leading the Royals starting rotation by a wide margin.

First pitch against KC is scheduled for 7:10 PDT tonight.

Since Kyle Blanks is today's hot topic due to being called up from El Paso, now seems like the perfect time to spotlight a couple of his cards. As I mentioned the other day, I'm not a big collector of relic cards, but sometimes I see such a good deal that I can't pass it up. I'm the same way with autographs, so you can sleep easy knowing that I got both of these dirt-cheap.

The jersey card pictured above is a 2011 Allen & Ginter issue. A&G does their relic cards the same way that they do their autographed cards, which is on a mini card within a frame with a slight gap, encased in transparent plastic. I've grown to hate the word 'classy' after listening to doofuses quote Ron Burgundy for a decade, but it's such a fitting description of this and all of A&G's cards.

The card on the right is a 2007 Bowman Prospects autographed insert. While I'm not that big of an autograph collector -- I only have a few dozen signed cards -- I do have preferences when it comes to them. I prefer certified signatures to in-person or through-the-mail signings. And when it comes to certified autographs I'm a much bigger fan of the ones that are signed directly on the card as opposed to the ones with a signed sticker slapped on them. This card gets the thumbs up on both regards.

Blanks has always been one of those guys I couldn't help but root hard for, so these and my other cards of him will always get a prime spot in one of my binders. Now that he's back in the bigs I'm looking forward to some new cards being released which can take up another page or two. And hey, you never know, maybe I'll score another relic card of him for pennies on the dollar.

The Royals face off against the dastardly Dads in a match-up for the ages. Yordano Viagra takes the mound.

Will the Royals continue their march forward towards their goal of a winless May? Only time will tell. A loss tonight would make it 0 - 5. Of course, if they continue to scuffle maybe this thin-skinned, clueless front office would be sent off quietly into the night.

Louie returns tonight. Set your DVRs. Or rather watch Louie, turn it back to the Royals game, see that the offense has gone to sleep on Yordano Ventura Day.

It sucks when it's hard to get it up for Yordano Ventura Day. Hopefully #YordanoViagra does its majick.

Yordano Ventura and the Royals face off against Eric Stoltz. The Bob Seger soundtrack for tonight's game will be replaced with Springsteen when the DVD is released. Watch for Sam Elliott riding into the stadium with a biker gang, only for Stoltz to get replaced after two weeks by Michael J. Fox.

A couple of bombs and some bottom of the ninth and extra inning magic were needed to keep the Royals winless at Petco Park.

The buzz going into the series was how the young, hard-throwing Yordano Ventura would be taking the mound to face the light hitting Friars. But, a new buzz popped up on game day with the announcement that Kyle Blanks would be called up and start at first base. Ventura would live up to his hype while Blanks would not.

Ventura showed his fastball that comes with built in flame trails and some excellent breaking stuff to strikeout out 8 Padres on the night. Blanks went 0 for 2 before being swapped with Yonder Alonso as part of a double switch. The swap came when Eric Stults had to be yanked after only four and 2/3 innings. Stults did not get hit hard, but the plenty of ground balls found holes and soft liners fell short of outfielders' gloves. In total 11 of the 23 hitters that face Stults got base hits and it resulted in 3 runs against the left-hander.

In contrast Ventura cruised into 6th inning allowing only 2 hits and no walks with no runs plated till that point. Then, after retiring Will Venable for his 8th whiffed Padre of the game, he gave up a single to the 5.5 hole to Everth Cabrera, a double to Seth Smith and 3 run home run to cleanup hitter Yasmani Grandal. The bomb to right field came after a great at bat by Grandal where he battled Ventura's tough pitches until he got one he could wallop. The clutch dinger would tie the game at 3 apiece going into the late innings.

The Royals would answer quickly. Nick Vincent entered the game to start the 7th, and after easily retire the first batter he gave up a screaming liner for a solo home run to Eric Hosmer. The Padres would answer that as well, but not nearly as quickly. The Padres went down quietly in the 7th and 8th while Dale Thayer and Alex Torres would keep the deficit at one. Then in the bottom of the 9th, with two outs separating the Royals from their first ever win at Petco Park, Jedd Gyorko took Kansas City closer Greg Holland deep to left field to knot it up at 4.

The game would stay knotted until the 12th. Huston Street and Joaquin Benoit would keep it that way, but when Tim Stauffer took over in the 12th a Salvador Perez double and a 2 out Mike Moustakas RBI single would give the Royals another 1 run lead. But as this game had went all night, a score by one team must be answered by the other.

In the bottom of the 12th the Padres would find a way to walk off in back to back nights. Chris Denorfia started it off with a single and the Padres tried to play for a tie by having Alexi Amarista bunt him over to 2nd. Yonder Alonso who had the game winning RBI in the previous game spoiled that strategy by hitting a shallow pop up that could not be caught. Alonso would hustle to second, but Denorfia had to hold up and only got to 3rd. The man who would win for the Padres was Will Venable. 0 for 5 on the night, Venable would lace a ball to right center field that would never be caught or even chased down. The Padres were at last victorious. Here's to sticktoitiveness.

Despite holding leads in the ninth and 12th innings, the Royals bullpen blows two late leads in an extra inning loss to the Padres. 10 Ks from Yordano Ventura and Hosmer's first dong hanging are for nought.

The Royals offense scattered 16 baserunners from the second through eighth innings. The Padres managed six baserunners through nine. Thanks to timely home runs from Yasmani Grandal and Jedd Gyorko, the score was all knotted up at the end of nine.

To be fair to the Royals, Eric Hosmer did hang wall-scraping solo dong in the top of the seventh to put the Royals and Yordano Ventura up 4 - 3. The Hosmer dong hanging--his first of the year--was an immediate answer for the three-run shot that Grandal hit off a curve that Ventura hung on the seventh pitch of quality at-bat from the 'roiding backstop.

Despite the three-run shot in Ventura's sixth and final inning, the Royals held a 4 - 3 lead heading into the bottom half of the ninth only to have Gyorko send a Greg Holland fastball that missed its target badly and ended up in the heart of the inner half of the plate right.

To have the Royals nastiest two pitchers cede the two Padres' home runs was deflating to say the least.

Phenom Yordano Ventura was almost entirely dominant, striking out ten Padres in his six innings of work while walking no one and allowing just five hits and another runner to reach on an Eric Hosmer throwing error to Ventura who was covering the bag at first. The Padres looked almost entirely overwhelmed by the lightning-armed righty. The key in that sentence, though, is the almost, as Grandal--who did have a foul-tip third strike that glanced off of Salvador Perez's mitt before finding its way to the dirt, thus keeping him alive--rocketed a hanging breaking ball into the seats in left field.

Fathers' starter Eric Stoltz looked to still be trying to shake off the shame that he's felt ever since the Back to the Future Trilogy Blu-ray set came out and revealed a wealth of footage in which he played Marty McFly so charmlessly as to have gotten removed from the film two weeks into filming. Stults Stoltz was yanked after just 4.2 IP, having allowed 11 Royals to reach base while striking out just two. Apparently he is not one for reading scouting reports.

Cher's son Photo credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

Aaron Crow and Wade Davis both looked very good in the seventh and eighth innings, only to have the ice cold Greg Holland serve up the long ball to San Diego's struggling second baseman. Crow, Davis, and Herrera (who pitched in the tenth) each struck out one while allowing no hits or walks.

The Royals threatened to score in the top of the 11th when Lorenzo Cain kicked things off with a lead-off double down the right field line. Cain advanced to third on a Dyson bunt only to have Justin Maxwell rifle a two-hopper back to Alexi Amarista at third, who threw Cain out at home, eliminating the scoring threat. Omar Infante--Omar wasn't coming--lined out to shortstop Everth Cabrera, and free baseball continued.

After Louis Coleman worked around trouble in the home half of the 11th, the Royals threatened to start off the 12th. Perez hit at one-out double to the gap in right center off of righty Tim Stauffer. While Alex Gordon struck out, late-inning defensive replacement Mike Moustakas roped a single to right and advanced to second on Chris Denorfia's late throw home.

With the Royals leading 5 - 4 and a Denorfia on first, they turned to the smallest person left in the stadium, Tim Collins, to try to finish off the Padres once and for all for one day. After a sacrifice put Denorfia on second, Yonder Alonso hit a blooper to shallow left field that Gordon dived for but came up just short. Keeping the ball in front of him, Gordon and the Royals kept Denorfia from scoring, but Alonso advanced to second, and Will Venable hit a ground-rule double to right-center field.

Lorenzo Cain had four hits, Perez and Hosmer each had three hits, and Alcides Escobar reached on two singles and a walk. The rest of the Royals position players combined for three hits and a walk. Yordano Ventura was better than the bulk of the Royals offense in his first game handling the wood in the Majors, as he ripped a single to left and reached on a fielder's choice in which no outs were recorded.

The Royals, who clearly deserve our blind and unwavering support despite having just one winning season since 2003, are still without a win in May, having lost five straight. Trust the bullshit process.

You need that thing, the game isn't over yet.

There's a lot to unpack in this one foul ball near the end of Monday night's Padres - Royals game. Let's start with Alex Gordon and his glove:

Dunking the glove over the wall is pretty great, but might be topped by the "Aw, dangit" look on Gordon's face when he turns around. In the left corner of the GIF, you have a fan failing to catch the same foul ball in their own way glove-less way:

A one-hand grab is attempted, and missing the souvenir somehow criticals the fan. Their arm seems fine when it's used to stop their toppling, so who knows what's going on here:

You would have had it with two hands!

Maybe self-preservation and instinct won out on the fall and there was good reason to go one-handed until that moment. We'll never know, because no one on the broadcast asked the tough questions afterward.

Don't worry, though: Gordon got his glove back in the end, and from his partner in foul ball failure, even:

(In time for the Royals to blow it and lose in extras.)

With the Royals in town, it's time for me to go back to the well and create a team comprised of guys who played for both teams. I generally choose the players based on their peak and career as a whole rather than how they did for either of the teams, although I sometimes make picks based on how much I irrationally love or hate the player in question.

Starting Lineup:

C- Benito Santiago
1B- Wally Joyner
2B- Bip Roberts
SS- Miguel Tejada
3B- Joe Randa
LF- Kevin McReynolds
CF- Ruppert Jones
RF- Reggie Sanders

Another one of these, another Santiago sighting. This is the fifth combined team he's been part of, and he'll be cropping up again when I get around to the Phillies, Pirates, and Blue Jays. Reggie Sanders is another familiar name, as he's manned right field for the last three of these I've done. Joe Randa is the weakest link of the bunch, but there were no other viable choices. I'm still resentful toward him for breaking up Chris Young's no-hitter with a ninth-inning homer.

Bench:

C- Don Slaught
IF/OF- Kurt Bevacqua
IF- Kurt Stillwell
OF- Shane Mack
LF/CF- Rondell White

It was tough to leave Chris Gwynn off, but Mack and White were too good to burn a roster spot on him. Besides, it's not like he's my brother. Kurt Stillwell gets the nod by virtue of being able to play the middle infield and not being Desi Relaford.

Starting rotation:

Gaylord Perry
Danny Jackson
Atlee Hammaker
Jeff Suppan
Dennis Rasmussen

Once you get past Perry there's not a whole lot to write home about, although Jackson did finish second in Cy Young Award voting in a fluky 1988 season when he went 23-8 with a 2.73 ERA for Cincinnati. Dennis Rasmussen took the fifth spot over the similarly uninspiring Brett Tomko and Kip Wells solely because I wanted to have both of the Rasmussens on the team.

Bullpen:

Mark Davis
Rudy Seanez
Bob Shirley
Ricky Bones
Jay Witasick
Matt Whisenant
Eric Rasmussen

And there's the other one. Aside from 1989 Cy Young Award winner Mark Davis closing down games, the bullpen is populated by fairly decent pitchers most casual fans wouldn't recognize. Shirley and Bones can serve as long relievers or spot starters, as Bones moved from the rotation to the 'pen halfway through his career, and Shirley served as a swingman throughout his.

That's my team. What would yours look like?

A look through the entire organization to see what kind of corner infielder depth the club has going into the 2014 MLB draft.

Once upon a time, 3B was the deepest position the Padres organization had. Kouzmanoff was the major league 3B, Chase Headley was right behind him (and shifted to LF for a time), behind him was James Darnell, a 2008 2nd round pick; they also had a plucky Vince Belnome and power bat in Edinson Rincon. Kouzmanoff and Belnome eventually got traded, Headley stuck around, but nears free agency and Darnell and Rincon's careers were derailed by injuries.

Once upon a time the Padres had depth at 1B. As recently as 2009 the Padres had Adrian Gonzalez, Mike Baxter, Matt Clark, 2008 1st round pick Allan Dykstra, Cody Decker, and Nate Freiman. That depth has slowly eroded over the years. Baxter is a journeyman who pops up in the majors as a lefty bat now and again. Clark was a solid AAA slugger, but went off to ply his trade in Japan. Dykstra was traded to the Mets. Freiman was taken in the Rule 5 draft by the A's. Cody Decker sticks around, tries out his glove at various positions, doesn't get an younger (he's 27) and never gets love from scouts or the organization. And, of course, Gonzalez we know. He was traded for a 1B, Anthony Rizzo. Who was then made expendable when the Padres acquired current starting 1B Yonder Alonso. A lot of shuffling, but no increase in depth.

What we have left is the aftermath of this bygone era. Darnell and Dykstra should have been in their prime right now. Rincon is still just 23 years old, but the club had to give up on him. It's things like these that have left the upper minors a bit barren along with a draft focus on up-the-middle players (pitchers, catchers, shortstops and second basemen).

Majors

Elite: None

Top: Chase Headley

Promising: Yonder Alonso, Kyle Blanks

Depth: None

Grade: C+. Headley's impending free agency and his injury/hitting issues over this season and last make his presence not that impactful when you are looking at depth. Alonso has had his one injury and hitting struggles, but the team has a lot of control over his contract over the next few years. Blanks proved again he can still rake at AAA and sometimes does in the majors, so no one is fully counting him out, but you only get so many chances.

AAA

Elite: None

Top: Tommy Medica

Promising: None

Depth: Cody Decker, Alex Castellanos

Grade: C+. Medica got a B- grade from minorleagueball.com so he get to be called a top prospect here. He had his moment in the sun at the end of 2013, but 2014's big league audition made people think he'll need some AAA work (which he skipped over last year). Decker is working hard to make himself useful to the organization any way he can and is a good player to have around just in case you want to throw the kitchen sink at the 1B spot. Castellanos can barely be called a 3B as his defense is not an asset and his bat seems to be in hibernation. Still he can be called depth even though he recently got removed from the 40 man roster.

AA

Elite: None

Top: None

Promising: None

Depth: None.

Grade: F. While the team isn't running out 30+ year olds at 1B and 3B in San Antonio the guys that are playing those positions have very, very little shot of helping in the majors. I almost called Lee Orr and Jason Hagerty depth, but I thought better of it. Sorry guys. Jace Peterson was playing here before his big league call up, but he mainly played SS so he's disqualified for 2 reasons.

A+

Elite: None

Top: None

Promising: Gabriel Quintana

Depth: Duanel Jones

Grade: C-. I'm being a little generous by calling Quintana promising as many of the prospect gurus (especially at minorleagueball.com) don't back it up. I've see him play and followed his stat lines and he seems to have a bat that will travel. To the majors though? That's something to wait-and-see. Jones was once a more touted prospect, but his bat eluded him last year. He's still just 21, so I won't count him out.

A

Elite: None

Top: Dustin Peterson

Promising: None

Depth: Jake Bauers

Grade: B+. Peterson is a top prospect that is bordering on elite (minorleagueball.com had him in their top 150 prospects in baseball). He is the only worthwhile 3B prospect in the entire system. Bauers is quite young and intriguing, but needs to have a good season for the TinCaps to be more than that. Franmil Reyes isn't listed but he's an an OF that is already huge (officially 6'5 240) and may end up at 1B. He has the bat for it. Fernando Perez' bat is also good and he has split time between 2B and 1B.

Others

Elite: None

Top: None

Promising: None

Depth: Carlos Belen

Grade: C+. Belen played as a 17 year old last year mostly with the Padres' DSL team and a little bit for their Arizona Rookie League team. He showed some pop in the DSL. Franchy Cordero will get included with the middle infielders, but there is talk that he could end up at 3B.

More from Gaslamp Ball

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• MLB Draft 2014: Padres pitcher depth

Last night the Padres hosted the second lowest attendance in Petco Park history, just 443 fans too many to tie the record. This is historically a slow time of year for fan attendance.  Look at the list of the 10 lowest attended games at Petco Park, 5 of them are in the first week of May.

10 lowest attended games in Petco Park history

Five of the games are also on Mondays, the lowest attended day of the week.  The fans that came were treated to an extra-inning walk-off win though, but they've come to expect that since the Padres have the highest win percentage on Mondays at Petco Park.

Average attendance and win % for each day of the week

May is the lowest attended month of the year at Petco Park, but also has the highest winning percentage.

Average attendance and win % for each month

Which just further proves my point that if you want the Padres to win, don't show up to the games.  The Padres are shy, they get self-conscious when they play in front of big crowds.

Our Padres are looking to get back on track in the quest to their first world series. Tonight they'll go for a third straight win and a series-win clincher against the Royals.

Robbie Erlin has been decent since joining the rotation at the beginning of the year. He had one really troubling outing when he took the mound in D.C., giving up eight earned runs on 13 hits in 5 1/3 innings, but other than that his pitching effort has yielded solid results. In his most recent start, he allowed three runs in 6 2/3 effective innings on the mound, but was tagged with his fourth straight loss. Tonight will be his first career appearance against Kansas City.

The southpaw hasn't gotten the run support from the offense to back his efforts this season. But hopefully the last three games are an indication of an improving offense and tonight Erlin can finally get his second win of the year. After a three-game stretch in which they combined for just two runs, San Diego has scored 13 over their last three. Their collective OPS over that stretch is a .709. There is still a lot of work to do to get to a respectable level, but the recent offensive showing has been encouraging.

Hopefully that offense can show up again tonight against KC's Jeremy Guthrie. The right-hander is looking to help the Royals pin down their first win in eight games in San Diego dating back to 2004. In Guthrie's most recent start, he surrendered four runs in six innings of work, his third time allowing that many runs in his six starts this season. He has pitched three times against the Friars in his career, twice as a starter and once as a reliever, going 1-2 with a 5.29 ERA.

The action gets underway at Petco Park at 7:10 PDT tonight. Join us and see if our Padres can keep the runs coming and continue to get their offensive numbers up.

After 12 long innings last night, the Padres desperately needed Robbie Erlin to throw a solid game, and he did just that, allowing a solitary run on 3 hits and 4 walks over 7 innings. Unfortunately, the only run support he got was a solo home run from Yasmani Grandal. The Royals were looking for their own bullpen-saving start, and got it from Jeremy Guthrie.  He went 8 innings, giving up just 4 hits and a walk. And that's how they spent 23 innings in the space of two days.

The Padres almost didn't make it to extra innings, though. With one out, Alcides Escobar eked out an infield single. He followed that by stealing second and third. Those steals must have made him cocky, because when Lorenzo Cain hit a pop fly into shallow right field, he tagged on the catch and ran for home. Kyle Blanks gunned the ball back home, and Grandal tagged Escobar easily.

I won't dwell on the bottom of the ninth. Three backwards Ks from the heart of the lineup is all you need to know.

Nick Vincent took over in the top of the 11th and immediately served up a double to Eric Hosmer, who had been 0-4 with 3 strikeouts until that point. Alex Gordon knocked in Hosmer with a single and moved to second on the throw home. Gordon would become an insurance run when Billy Butler hit a double immediately after. Not that it mattered. The Padres came up empty in the bottom of the 11th, and that was that.

Andrew Cashner goes for the series win in less than 12 hours. Get to the ballpark at 12:40 PM and visit Bobby Cressey between sections 311 and 313.

Friar Fever just barely edged out Conor42 40 comments to 39, but Conor 42 had an impressive 4 recs.

I was digging through year-by-year results of major-award voting, looking for Padres who received any votes for the big three awards, when I thought the Padres who actually won them would make for a good quiz. So, I put the post I had in mind on the back burner and threw this quiz together. I'll revisit my original idea later, when this quiz is old news and won't get spoiled for anyone.

Since there are only seven answers and I imagine most people will get at least five of them right off the bat, I made the quiz a bit more challenging by setting it up to force the answers in order. This discourages mass-wild-guesses once you get all the ones you knew by heart. If you need to skip one -- say, the guy who was the 1976 co-Rookie of the Year, for instance -- you can come back to it after you go through all the others, provided you have time remaining. Wrong answers don't lock you out; this just limits your guessing to that particular answer.

Now that I've explained the new twist, it's time to spell out the same old, same old for the benefit of anyone who might be quizzing around with us for the first time (Welcome!). There's a poll down there (heh); it's to log (heh) how many you got right. Feel encouraged to discuss your answers and whatnot in the comments section, but be sure to use the spoiler bar feature over players' names and where otherwise applicable.

Alright, enough of that. Get it, gurl.