NL West Champions

Posted on | September 28, 2005 | No Comments

The NL West Champions

Padres dominated the San Francisco Giants in the 9 innings presented to a crowd of 38,000. From the first inning the Padres found their bats, run after inning after run after inning. Finishing it all off with Trevor Hoffman and a special edition of Hells Bells. The final score of 9-1

The San Diego Padres became the first MLB team to clinch a divisional title without a winning record. The 82-79 ‘Mighty Mets’ of 1973 didn’t have a worse record then the padres have this year. Perhaps we should be calling them the ‘All-Mighty Padres.’

The NL West might be the worst division in MLB, but the Padres are the best of the bunch, with a team salary of $20m less then the Dodgers and Giants

The Game

Feeling desperate the Giants started their ace pitcher Schmitt, against the Padres Triple-A pick-up Pedro Astacio. The Padres found their bats and provided a minimum of one run per inning, while Pedro provided a shutout through the 7th. In the end the Padres had 15 hits in the game, three from Loretta and Rookie Ben Johnson.

Barry Bonds was shut down to 1 hit of the evening. Astacio took no hesitation to pitching to Bonds after shaking up his arm. The Padres infield was skewered to the right with Mark Loretta in rover like position.

The Playoffs

Now that they have made it to the post season. What are we to expect from this club. The Padres will start the divisional series against Braves or Cardinals., two teams who found themselves in the playoffs last year. If Houston clinches the Wild Card will face the Braves. If Philadelphia wins the Wild Card we will play the Cardinals. The padres have a 4-3 record against the Cardinals and a 5-1 record against the Braves this year.

Reasons to Believe

Jake Peavy… 1.90 ERA… nuff said
Trevor Hoffman… 42 saves this season, highest number of saves for an active player, 2nd all time
3x to the playoffs, 2 of those resulted in World Series Visits. (.666 average)
Underdog sneak attack
Red Alert Squad – balance any injuries and come through in clutch situations
One of the best bullpens in MLB,li>0-0 in the 2005 Playoffs
Nothing to loose approach to the playoffs.