News
Padres' bats can't back Peavy
Right-hander's 11-game winning streak over Dodgers ends
By Corey Brock / MLB.com
04/06/09 11:34 PM ET
SAN DIEGO -- Some of the most animated, pointed and honest conversations Jake Peavy has during the course of a game are often the ones he has with himself on the mound, not in the dark shadows of the home dugout where hiding is easy.To be clear, these one-sided discussions are never cheery pep talks. Instead, it's more of a way to vent when things aren't going right, as was the case right out of the chute Monday on Opening Day PETCO Park.
The Dodgers, a team Peavy hadn't lost to since 2003, had just scored two runs in the first inning, both coming when James Loney got enough of a pitch that Peavy actually liked, a fastball in, fisting it the other way for an early lead.
"He [Loney] made a good inside-out swing. I wish it would have been different," Peavy said of the result, not the pitch.
Peavy's angst against the Dodgers, a team he has essentially owned since his rookie year, was not merely the result of Loney's hit, which stood up in the Dodgers' 4-1 victory over the Padres before the largest crowd in PETCO Park history (45,496).
Instead, it likely was more the frustration of knowing that an early deficit, no matter how well he pitches, makes for a tough hole to climb out of, especially with an offense that in 2008 ranked last in the Major Leagues in runs scored.
"When I take the mound, I know there's not going to be a margin for error," Peavy said. "Today's game was nothing new. I'm not knocking the hitters we've had before or the ones we have now. We're just going to play low-scoring games."
Yes, it was one game Monday, though the fact that the outcome and the way the Padres got from start to finish eerily resembled so many of their losses from 2008 brought up some old feelings and even older wounds.
The Padres (0-1) managed five hits against starter Hiroki Kuroda and three relievers and were 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position. Brian Giles chased home their only run of the game with a groundout in the first inning.
After that, there was nothing, although the Padres had chances and a few near-misses as All-Star first baseman Adrian Gonzalez flew out to deep center field in the first inning -- as he called it, "one of those PETCO outs" -- and then just narrowly missed a home run in the sixth inning when he just hooked a ball foul.
"Off the bat, I thought it would stay fair. It didn't look like it had a lot of hook to it," said Padres manager Bud Black, who, like many in the Padres' dugout and those in the stands rooting for the Padres, initially felt the ball had a chance to stay fair.
"It was real close," Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez later walked to load the bases. That signaled the end for Kuroda, who allowed one run on four hits in 5 2/3 innings. Cory Wade entered the game and got Padres third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff to tap back to the mound to end the inning.
The Padres got a runner as far as third base in the seventh inning, but pinch-hitter Edgar Gonzalez flew out to right field to end the inning. One inning later, Kouzmanoff fouled out to Loney after David Eckstein and Gonzalez walked.
But close doesn't cut it, as Peavy -- who entered Monday's game with a career record of 13-1 against the Dodgers -- discovered in the first inning when Rafael Furcal singled into right field and Orlando Hudson jumped on the first pitch he saw for a single as well.
Peavy, who allowed three earned runs in seven innings with eight strikeouts, looked as if he might get out of the jam when he got Manny Ramirez on a first-pitch fly ball to center and Andre Ethier on a fly ball to left.
But after battling Russell Martin, missing on a 3-1 slider away for a walk, Peavy tried to run a 1-2 fastball in on the hands of Loney. In a sense, he did what he wanted. But Loney fought off the pitch, sending it the other way into left field for two runs.
"I didn't have the great stuff tonight," said Peavy, who noted he wasn't nearly as sharp as he was in his final two Spring Training outings when he tossed 11 scoreless innings. "But I'm not extremely disappointed with the way I threw. That's a good lineup over there."
Peavy marveled on several occasions Monday about the Dodgers' lineup and wondered how a hitter like Loney, who drove in 90 runs last season, can hit seventh or how Casey Blake, who drove in 81 runs last season, hits eighth in the order before the pitcher.
The Padres would cover the last two innings of the game with new relievers Ed Mujica and Luke Gregerson, two players who didn't go to Spring Training with the Padres but were added in the final three weeks of spring.
Mujica worked a scoreless inning, allowing one hit and striking out Manny Ramirez. As for Gregerson, he walked a bit of a tightrope in the ninth inning, allowing a hit and one walk but got out of the jam with two strikeouts.
"It kind of worked out in the end," Gregerson said.
Only it didn't for the Padres, who dropped a game that looked a lot like many of the 99 losses from a year ago.
Corey Brock is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
