The Padres aren’t very good, but Chris Young is still pretty good, and the Padres’ bullpen appears to be VERY good. After the Padres turned a 2-1 Dodgers lead into a 4-2 Padres lead with a three-run rally against Randy Wolf and Guillermo Mota in the sixth, the Dodgers didn’t get another hit against Edwin Moreno, Duaner Sanchez (remember him?) and Heath Bell, the guy who is now 1 for 1 in save opportunities since inheriting the closer role from the legendary Trevor Hoffman, who left for Milwaukee over the winter. Tough night for the Dodgers’ offense, which is now 5 for 17 for the season w/RISP. … By the way, the exaggerated infield shift on Adrian Gonzalez APPEARED to give Gonzalez a leadoff single through the spot where Rafael Furcal would have normally been standing in the sixth inning, the first blow in that decisive rally (Casey Blake went to his knees for it, but missed). Joe Torre later said Furcal would have been playing Gonzalez closer to the bag, so the ball would have gotten through anyway. Maybe. But what we learned after the game was that Randy Wolf called for the shift, that it’s always the pitcher’s call, and Wolf played for the Padres last year and thus had firsthand knowledge of Gonzalez’s tendencies as a hitter.
“(Third-base coach) Larry (Bowa) asked me yesterday if I wanted it,” Wolf said. “Most of the time, when (Gonzalez) hits a ground ball, he usually pulls it, somewhere between shortstop and the right side. His power is more to left-center. You have to play the percentages, but that’s the way it goes sometimes.”
Dodgers fall to 1-1 and into a four-way tie for second with the Pods, Snakes and Rox. Giants lead the division by a half-game. Billingsley vs. Walter Silva (see earlier post on him) tomorrow night, 7:05.
