Buddy Black and Hoffman join forces to blow the game

Bud black and Trevor Hoffman have just cost the team yet another game.  With the score tied 2 to 2 in the ninth and Bell ready to go back out for a second inning, Black calls on Hoffman to pitch.  Any fan who has watched the Padres for the past decade knows that Trevor has a history of struggling in non-save situations.  Trevor had some struggled the other night when he blew a save and he has been pitched quite a bit, while Bell was relatively fresh and looked pretty sharp in his one inning….yet still Black called for Hoffman…and it came back to bite him in the ass.

Hoffman comes in and right away gives up a leadoff walk to Russ Martin.  Leadoff walks out of the bullpen are killer!  You have to go after the batter and force him to at least make contact, giving up a leadoff walk is a major cardinal sin.  Hoffman gets an easy ground ball which advances the runner to second and then gives up a line drive right down the left field line which scores the run.  Padres lose 3-2.

The was no reason for Hoffman to be in the game in that situation.  He consistently struggles in non save situations, and the Paders had Bell and many other excellent options to pitch the ninth instead.

I have been a huge huge Hoffman fan my whole life and I understand what he has done for the organization.  I would love for him to succeed right now and be dominate again, I just personally feel he is past his prime.  There is nothing really we can do about it either, we are going to have to deal with him for the entire season and my guess is he will retire at the end of the season.  We cannot remove him as our closer or force him to retire early, so instead it is going to be a long and frustrating year.  I feel bad for the people like Chris Young who have busted their butts and gone out there playing a great game only to have it blown by Trevor.  I know Trevor will rebound but it is frustrating to accept that he is not the dominate closer he once was.  Trevor is going to blow more games then ever before this year and he is not going to dominate and wow everyone like he has before, it is just something we need to accept.  We just need to avoid putting him in there when he should not be in there (such as instances like today).

Better managerial decisions must be made against division rivals.  As we found out last year…every game counts