Friar Watch

Justin Germano: Yet another good outing for Germano. 5 IP, 5 H, 0 BB and a season high 4 K. 2 of those hits were home runs but they came with no one on so the damage was minimal.

This one is a little cluttered but includes all pitches, as well as release point:

Green = ball
Red = Called Strike
Yellow = Out
White = Hit
Large white = home run
Blue = swinging strike
Blue diamond = foul

No great revelations here, Germano was around the plate all night. The home run balls look like mistakes in the heart of the plate but he got away with several other pitches in that area. I think Germano has doen such a great job of mixing speeds and location that it keeps the hitters off balance even when he misses with location.

Cla Meredith: The Claw is back. Bud Black wisely limited Cla to one inning and Cla was his usual near-unhittable self.

Scott Linebrink: Another excellent outing. One difference between this year and last is even if Scotty gives up a hit it feels like he still has everything in control. Last year it felt like he was on the verge of getting rocked.

Doug Brocail: Speaking of getting rocked, Brocail manufactured a save opportunity for the 2nd game in a row. Black really needs to start using Kevin Cameron in these situations, Padres ahead by more than 3 in the 9th.

Trevor Hoffman: An easy two out save. Trevor issued a walk but his command was excellent. All his fastballs were right on the corner, the ball four call wasn’t off by much. I had hoped to create a chart for Trevor’s outing but the pitch data was incomplete and didn’t really give a good idea of how effective Trevor was.