After five straight wins, including a four-game series sweep of the Mets and a league record four consecutive wins by a score of 2-1, a lesson in Padres history is in order.
The Padres once won 14 games in a row. In that glorious streak, they twice swept three-game sets from the Dodgers, took four straight from the Rockies and began the string with a three-game sweep of the Pirates. They won one more in Colorado before the streak ended in a 12-10 slugfest.
Among the interesting things about the streak, Matt Clement and Brian Boehringer each won three games. The first game saw savior-to-never-be Ruben Rivera knock two home runs. Rivera homered and doubled in a win over LA to raise his batting average to .208. The Padres scored 13 runs at the Q vs Colorado when Rockies pitchers issued 10 walks. In another game vs the Rox, Damian Jackson stole five bases. The Padres beat the Dodgers on an RBI single by Jackson in the 12th inning. Trevor Hoffman saved the first five wins and nine of the 14.
Alas, the final victory in the streak merely evened the Padres record at 39-39 and pulled them within 5 games of the first place Giants. The year was 1999, a season removed from the World Series and the beginning of a tailspin that would keep postseason baseball out of America’s Finest City until 2005.
The Padres finished that season 74-88. That number again – 14 – games below .500 in fourth place.
So we have history now that bad Friars teams can put together nice winning streaks. Maybe they’ll continue to improve through 2008 and actually put pressure on the suddenly vulnerable Diamondbacks. As the history lesson demonstrates, maybe not.
One of the nice stories of the baseball season so far is the rise of Red Sox rookie P Justin Masterson, who played at San Diego State. He’s 2-0 after three starts, has allowed just 11 hits in 18 innings and has struck out 14 batters.
Call him a late-bloomer. In his only season on the Mesa, Masterson was 6-7 with an ERA of 4.81. There’s been better pitchers at SDSU, but he appears to have a great pro future ahead of him.
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