Friar Watch

Clay Hensley: The TV radar gun has shown Clay as high as 93 mph on his fastball. I don’t know how accurate that is but he definitely has the sinking action working for him. A rough first inning as he gave up a booming double to Bonds but he settled down after that.

Hensley has said he worked a lot on his change up this spring and he’s used it to good effect tonight. Adding an effective change up to his strong sinker could pay big dividends for him as the season wears on.

Hensley had some blister trouble after his last spring training start. Apparently he clipped his nail to short and the skin kind of pushed up around the edge of the nail and created a blood blister. Both Hensley and Bud Black have stated it wouldn’t be a problem for tonight’s start and so far it hasn’t been. However, I did notice Hensley checking the blister starting in the 5th inning. He got two quick outs before back to back walks brought Bonds to the plate for his customary semi-intentional walk. It always seems like pitchers have trouble finding the plate after those type of walks and sure enough Hensley ran the count to 3-2 before hanging a slider which Durham drove into right field for a 2 run single. A botched pop up was followed by a clean single and that was the end for Clay Hensley.

I’ve said for years that the semi-intentional walk is a bad idea. I think it gets pitchers out of whatever groove they’re in, and if the guy is already struggling with control it’s even worse. Just do an intentional walk and get on with it.

Doug Brocail: Brocail came in to put out the fire and walked Molina before getting Winn on a ground ball to second that was nearly thrown away by Giles. Brocail was wild, his curveballs weren’t close and his fastball was up in the zone but he settled down and cruised in the 6th.

Kevin Cameron: The bright spot of the night. I was very impressed by his stuff and his attitude. Cameron came in and worked very quickly and aggressively. Mark Grant compared his cutter to Mariano Rivera and it’s similar in action if not quite in quality. He throws it in on the hands of lefties, just like Mariano, and also features a nice slider. His command was excellent; on a night where the umpire was doing more squeezing than Mr. Whipple he got his share of called strikes, as well as inducing a double play when he needed it. If he can continue pitching like this the Padres bullpen is going to be scary.