Going to San Diego

Unfortunately, most of those bombs we hit in LA will be easy fly-outs at Petco. And, really, to let that fossil Erickson shut us down for five innings was really worrisome. I mean, c'mon. We lit Gagne up the night before but looked like a cast of fools against an octogenerian with an ERA in the troposphere.

But it was good to take the series against the Dodgers - we usually suck quite deeply on the Pacific Coast. The Padres have won something like 12 of their last 15 games, have overtaken the Dogers for second place and are only 1/2 game behind the Diamondbacks, who I predict will lose like 30 games in a row pretty soon.

Fortunately, we do not have to face Peavy in the series. It will be interesting to see this kid Stauffer, though. He was 2-0 with a 2.33 ERA in the pitching-friendly Pacific Coast league - good for sixth place - with 31 Ks and only 8 BBs in 38.2 IP. He can bring it. His first start was pretty good considering he pitched at Cinci - giving up only two runs and four hits to those juiced-up behemoths. Typically the Braves are pretty futile against recent call-ups - so this will be interesting to see.