Friar Watch

David Wells: Boomer has not had a lot of success this season but today he was at least able to minimize the damage for 5 innings. Unfortunately Bud Black once again tried to get a little too much out of a visibly tired pitcher and had Wells come out to start the 6th. This is the same mistake that drove me crazy when Bruce Bochy was managing: trying to get one more inning out of a starter because he’s due up the next inning.

If the Padres had been ahead I could see letting Wells start the 6th and planning to yank him if he gave up a baserunner. But the score was tied, one mistake could cost the game. Sure enough, Wells hung a curveball right in the heart of the plate to the leadoff batter, Jeff Francouer. Francouer absolutely crushed the ball but it somehow stayed in the park with Jose Cruz Jr. catching it right at the wall. That should have made it obvious that Wells was cooked but Black was keeping an open mind on the subject. Black inexplicably left Wells in as he gave up a single, double, strikeout, walk and a triple before finally taking him out. I think Wells was trying to signal that he was done, his last nine pitches were all curves. He had absolutely no confidence in his fastball and had no command of his curve.

Take a look at Wells’ pitch chart for the 6th inning:

That doesn’t look like recipe for succes for a guy who throws 85mph on a good day. You’d think the Padres would have someone on the bench or in the clubhouse looking at this kind of data and realizing that means the starter has lost it.

Doug Brocail: Brocail was great once again. Black mentioned that he likes Brocail’s ability to go two or three innings if needed so he’s probably going to continue to be used in a long relief/mop up role.

Justin Hampson: Another nice job in garbage time for Hampson. Yeah, I said garbage time. When the Padres are down by two with two innings left it’s like any other team being down by 5.