A Brief Note on Beisbol

The [San Diego] Padres have emerged as a collection of thrill-seekers, living for suspense.

They lead baseball in extra-inning games and rarely make it easy on themselves, which made their head-first vault back into first place in the National League West on Sunday par for the sometimes agonizing course.

You know how they do it? Mediocre batting and terrific, smart pitching, great managing. And when they do need that crucial hit, they tend to get it. They can't pay a lot of money to players, so they make some smart trades for unsung players and then get them to perform, often better than they have with any previous team. They play solid, fundamental baseball and put together runs usually one or two at a time. Nothing fancy. Nothing abnormally muscular. No hot air of the kind that emanates from New York, Boston, Atlanta. Without marquee players, they don't mind rotating through a couple of players in some positions.

Although they could very well lose the NL West lead tomorrow, another nice feature of the Padres is that they have a knack for pipping the LA Dodgers at the finish line. They've won eight of the last nine games with LA. Look for them in the playoffs, playing the quiet game of baseball with a bit of final-inning flair.

UPDATE (Sept. 19th, 2:05am):

Bot 9th: LA Dodgers

- J. Kent homered to deep center

- J.D. Drew homered to deep right

- R. Martin homered to deep left

- M. Anderson homered to deep right

Ouch....