Wow, what can I say about this game, pretty much exactly
what needs to happen for this team to be successful. Starting pitching was
solid, the bullpen was solid, the defense was outstanding, the offense was opportunistic
and aggressive – essentially the perfect recipe for a San Diego Padres victory, and a
little bonus it coming in St. Louis against the thorn known as the Cardinals. 

Remember the day a few years back when Albert Pujols took
out Chris Young with a liner to the face then in the very same inning took out
Josh Bard on a hard slide into home, that was horrible. I think however this 3
GIDP (grounded into double-play) day probably made up for that – I never
thought I would ever feel properly avenged for that, I am appeased.

I can’t say enough about the defense though, some of the
double plays were tough, in the 5^th Jason Bartlett had to range far
to his right to get to that ball, and still turned a double play; in the 10^th
Cardinals manager Tony La Russa had put a hit-and-run on so the runner was
right on top of Hudson when he got that ball and threw it to first to get both
outs. Neither of those are easy plays but both were made to look easy. Neither
was Cameron Maybin’s play to open the first inning, he came in hard right off
the bat and closed that gap quick, I am very impressed so far with him in
center. The one criticism I have is the Colby Rasmus triple should have been
Maybin’s ball, though it looked like it carried a lot further into center than
it appeared it would off that bat, he should be commanding the play as the
center fielder. It’s hard because we have two center fielders in the outfield
right now, but Venable and Maybin will figure each other out eventually, they
just need some time to get acclimated.

On the offensive side I thought Hundley, Headley, and Venable
all had the kinds of days we are going to need them to have to be successful this
year. I really liked Venable going the other way on that double, that was a
beautiful swing and Chase had a few good swings just right at guys, he’ll get
those he is hitting nice line drives all around the park. Hundley just missed a
home run, and is it just me, or does he look like a completely different guy at
the plate? He is the leader of this team already, let’s hope he can keep up the
offensive production all season.

An encouraging day especially starting the year in St. Louis, although it is only 1 of 162 hopefully they can play like this all year.