Buddy Black Sleeps Through the Seventh…

Honestly, where was bud during that 7th inning today?

Thatcher gets an out and then goes and walks 3 batters to load the bases INCLUDING the pitcher, and Bud doesn’t take him out?  Rusch was up and ready in the pen so there was no reason why the switch couldn’t have been made.  The next batter (one of the best hitters on the Dodgers) then smacks a base hit to score two runs and make it a 3 to 1 game.  It seems one of the major flaws from Bud’s first year as a manager is still around in 08, and that is his sometimes blind faith in pitchers.  He has shown that he will let a pitcher work out of their own mess, and it has come back to bite the team many times, including tonight.  When a reliever comes in during a tie game in the seventh, walking the bases loaded should not be acceptable.  To think that the guy who just walked the bases loaded is going to get 2 outs against the heart of the Dodger’s lineup is having too much faith.  I understand Black was a pitcher and he has been a pitching coach and he knows the pitchers want to fix their own mistakes, but the line needs to be drawn somewhere.

In case you haven’t noticed now I always let my emotions get the best of me after a loss and therefore you will see a fair share of criticism and negativity after a loss.

Other Negatives:

-The Padres were just overpowered by Kuroda tonight.  Of course, none of the Padres had faced Kuroda before so he had that advantage going for him, but still….he looked real sharp and threw less than 80 pitches through his 7 innings.

The postives:

Our starting rotation has been lights out the first time through.  Peavy 0 ER, Germano 0 ER, Wolf 1 ER, CY 1 ER, Maddux 3 ER.  Wow.  If we could keep up pitching like this the Padres will be a force to reckon with in the NLwest.