Friar Watch

1-3 against a team that supposedly has no pitching. The series was especially frustrating because all of the Padres most aggravating faults were on display. Getting shut down by a retread pitcher? Check. A mediocre Peavy outing? Check. The opposing team blasting balls out of Petco while the Padres don’t? Check.

Game Four was the one that really hurt. Needing a win to salvage the series we had our ace against a journeyman (to put it kindly) with a career ERA over 6 and 1:1 K/BB ratio. Sadly, the result was predictable: Jake coughed up some runs and the offense showed no patience against Durbin (109 pitches in 9 innings). The only bright spot was Linebrink didn’t allow a home run.

Adding to the frustration was home plate umpire Chris Guccione’s unwillingness to enforce the batter’s box against Ryan Howard, his back foot being clearly out of the box. When a manager calls something to the umpire’s attention and the TV broadcast is clearly showing the infraction the umpire needs to man up and admit he missed it and start calling it.