The story line is getting too repetitive:  good starting pitching, little to no offense and a late inning bullpen collapse.  Just plug in the key players and you’ve got a game.

Lannan pitched 6 innings, giving up 2 runs on 5 hits.  It wasn’t his best day, but it was another decent start.  He did issue 3 walks throughout the game and hit Kouzmanoff, who would, moments later, cross the plate to tie the game.

Saul looked fine in the 7th, his normal inning of relief.  When he came back in the 8th, things didn’t go as well.  He was saved when Ryan Langerhans leaped to make an amazing catch which robbed Kouzmanoff of a home run.  He promptly gave up two consecutive singles before being lifted for Charlie Manning. 

Manning’s fourth pitch to Gerut soared just left of the foul pole in right field - a three run shot to give the Padres a decisive lead.  Two of those runs were charged to Rivera, who was also tagged with the loss.

The bats went back to silent today.  The team managed to pull out 2 runs on only 4 hits.  Only Lopez, Boone, Milledge and Langerhans put the ball in play.  Dukes and Langerhans collected the RBIs. 

I’ll ask again - since it seems overlooked, but when can we expect Ryan Wagner (60 Day DL) to return and how long will it take him to get back to form?  We need more reliable arms in the bullpen and the top three can’t handle all the work.  We’re not going to be blowing out teams anytime soon, which means, every arm in the pen must be able to play in close games.  Whether it’s tied or we’re up or down by one or two runs, it would be nice if we had some real options rather than wearing out the two set-up men and the closer.   On that note, Cordero had a nice stint in the booth today.  We need him back too.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 29th, 2008 at 6:07 pm and is filed under Game Recaps. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.