San Diego, CA

Diamondbacks 1, San Diego 13: Knuckle(ball) Sandwich

Published

2 years ago

June 9, 2024

Diamondbacks 1, San Diego 13: Knuckle(ball) Sandwich

Yeah, let’s not sugarcoat this. We got utterly annihilated tonight. Ryne Nelson, who pitched very well against San Francisco on Monday, went up against San Diego righthander and part-time knuckleballer Matt Waldron. I didn’t know that being a part-time knuckleball pitcher was a thing, but apparently it is a thing. Waldron is a guy who has a lot of pitches in his arsenal, it turns out, and one of those pitches happens to be a knuckleball. Earlier in the year, he was apparently throwing it about 30% or the time, but as the year has gone on, he’s gotten his usage up above 40%. And we couldn’t hit it, or him, like, at all.

Waldron was perfect through his first four innings, retiring the first twelve batters he faced on 58 pitches thrown. Ryne Nelson, meanwhile, only lasted 3¹⁄₃ innings for us, and needed 91 pitches to get that far. Needless to say, we did not get good Ryne tonight. After giving up a leadoff single to Luis Arraez to start, he then retired Fernando Tatis, Jr., Jurickson Profar, and Jake Cronenworth in order to put up his first zero. Not bad, but not great—he wasn’t commanding his pitches, and didn’t manage a first-pitch strike until the fourth batter he faced, and his control looked, well, kinda iffy.

The wheels came off, the first time, for Ryne in the bottom of the second, as he surrendered two opposite field singles to start the frame. Then rookie Jackson Merrill hit a ground ball to Christian Walker, who threw to second in the hopes of starting a double play. Alas, however, he committed a rare error, throwing the ball wide of Kevin Newman and into left field. The error allowed the lead runner to score and put runners on first and second, still with nobody out. Ha-Seong Kim then lined a three-run homer over the wall in left center. Nelson got out of it without further damage, but it took him 37 pitches to get through the inning, putting him at 50 pitches through two. 4-0 San Diego

Nelson managed to put up another zero in his half of the third, though again he had to work, pitching around two walks and a double that loaded the bases. Still, no further damage done, though it took him 29 more pitches to get into and out of that trouble, putting him at 79 for the night. And then the bottom of the fourth rolled around, which also marked the Padres’ lineup turning over for the second time. Anyone who has watched Nelson’s starts is likely aware that things get exponentially more dicey when he starts working through the order for the third time in a game, and this was no different, aside from the relative rarity of that occurring in the fourth inning. He retired Arraez for the second time, surrendered a double to Tatis, walked Profar, and got the hook from Torey Lovullo, who had seen enough as his starter was already at 91 pitches. So Logan Allen, Bullpen Savior and Devourer of Innings, took the ball, and….well. He gave up a dinger to Cronenworth, and one out later back to back doubles to David Peralta and Merrill before finally getting the third out of the inning. 8-0 San Diego

We did actually start to show a bit of life in the top of the fifth, and seemed for a couple of moments like we’d finally begun to figure our Waldron. Christian Walker doubled over the head of Profar to lead off the inning. Lourdes Gurriel, Jr. singled him to third. Blaze Alexander drew a walk to load the bases, all with nobody out. Then Geno Suarez singled to left, allowing Walker to cross the plate, and leaving the bases loaded with nobody out. Sadly, though, Waldron’s knuckleball superpowers reasserted themselves, as Kevin Newman popped out on the infield, Tucker Barnhart dribbled a ground ball in front of the plate that Waldron fielded cleanly and flipped home to force Gurriel at the plate, and then induced another weak grounder from Corbin Carroll that allowed him to wriggle off the hook with only minimal damage done. 8-1 San Diego

And that was pretty much it, except for the further piling on by San Diego against our substantially depleted bullpen. Four more runs scored in the Padres fifth, causing Allen to exit with only three outs recorded as new scrap heap pickup/bullpen addition Thyago Vieira relieved him. He got us out of the fifth with only four more Padres crossing the plate, and then pitched a bottom of the sixth that would have been clean but for the solo dinger he surrendered to the Padres’ backup catcher. 13-1 San Diego

Meanwhile, eventually Waldron left the game for San Diego, and some other guys came out of the bullpen and put up zeroes. Jake McCarthy managed a leadoff walk in the top of the sixth, Suarez draw a one-out walk in the seventh, Corbin Carroll led off the eighth with a cheap infield single to start the eighth, and Gurriel singled up the middle to start the ninth, but none of those baserunners came anywhere close to crossing the plate.

If there are any bright spots here, one would I suppose be that Scott McGough made his first appearance since his vacation in Reno, and actually retired the Padres in order in the seventh for the only 1-2-3 inning Diamondbacks pitching recorded tonight. And somewhat hilariously, Pavin Smith pitched the bottom of the eighth for us. His “changeup” touched 83 mph, and despite hitting the first batter he faced and then walking the next, and then having the bases loaded on a popup that Christian Walker dropped, uncharacteristically, for his second error of the game (!!!), he induced a Luis Arraez double play grounder to end the inning and put up a zero. So that was kind of amusing, I suppose.

Anyway. This one was no fun at all, really. I’m glad for you if you missed it.

Win Probability Added, courtesy of FanGraphs

Punching Bag: Ryne Nelson (3¹⁄₃ IP, 6 H, 6 ER, 4 BB, 1 K, 1 HR, -23.7% WPA)

The Gameday Thread started out reasonably strong, but depopulated quickly as the game went south early and continued heading south at speed. 133 comments at time of writing, and a fair number went Sedona Red. Tonight’s CotG goes to kilnborn, for his somewhat premature remark up the gong being struck for Ryne Nelson’s short outing:

Torey likely had seen enough, but like it or not, he saw plenty more before it was done. Heigh ho.

Anyway. Fourth game of the series is tomorrow afternoon, if you’d care to drop by and see if we can at least salvage a series split. Rookie Adam Mazur starts for the Padres, and judging by the information that MLB has up about tomorrow’s game, Mazur will be going up against….um, Scott McGough? Okay then. I guess it’s gonna be a bullpen game? Yikes. Who the hell knows, really?

Join us if you dare. Hope to see you. First pitch is scheduled for 1:10pm AZ time.

As always, thanks for reading, and as always, go Diamondbacks!

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San Diego, CA

San Diego State moves back into NCAA Tournament field in latest ESPN Bracketology

Published

2 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

San Diego State moves back into NCAA Tournament field in latest ESPN Bracketology

The San Diego State Aztecs’ have moved off the bubble and back into the NCAA Tournament’s Field of 64 in the latest ESPN’s Bracketology projections.

The Aztecs must feel like a yo-yo, but now it’s in a good way. Bracket expert Joe Lunardi moved them from the bottom of the First Four Out — No. 72 — to holding the Mountain West’s automatic bid after an 89-72 home romp Wednesday night over Utah State, which had held the auto-bid in bracketology for a few weeks now.

Lunardi now has the Aztecs as the No. 11 seed in the West Region, with a projected first-round date against former MW rival BYU in Portland.

Lunardi wrote that SDSU’s auto-bid “shifts the entire bubble.”

Wednesday night’s victory not only pulled the Aztecs (19-8, 13-4) into a tie with Utah State (23-5, 13-4) atop the MW standings, but it was just their second Quad 1 victory in six such opportunities.

SDSU’s next two games are both Quad 1 chances, at New Mexico on Saturday and then at Boise State on Tuesday night.

The win lifted the Aztecs only one spot in the NCAA NET Rankings, to No. 43. Those rankings are used by the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee as the primary sorting tool for selection and seeding for March Madness.

SDSU’s resume for earning an at-large berth has been on shaky ground all season, and was seriously damaged last week when the Aztecs lost at home to Grand Canyon and were then routed at Colorado State, both Quad 2 games.

SDSU’s best bet to assure a trip to March Madness for the sixth straight season is to win the MW tournament in Las Vegas and claim the automatic bid. That requires winning three games in as many days, and perhaps a third showdown against the Aggies, who beat the Aztecs 71-66 in Logan on Jan. 31.

Lunardi now has Utah State projected as an at-large team, but still with the No. 7 seed in the East, facing No. 10 Texas A&M in a first-round game in St. Louis.

New Mexico (21-7, 12-5), lurking just a game behind SDSU and USU, has dropped from the Last Four In at No. 68 to the First Four Out at No. 70.

The Aztecs were the unanimous preseason pick to win the MW regular-season title in their final season in the league before moving into the Pac-12 along with Utah State, Boise State, Fresno State and Colorado State.

Saturday’s game at New Mexico is set to tip off at 11 a.m. PT and will air on CBS.

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San Diego, CA

Oregon State Dismantles San Diego 83-49

Published

14 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

The top teams in the West Coast Conference are jockeying for position in the standings as the regular season draws to a close, and the Oregon State women took care of business Thursday night, blowing out the San Diego Toreros 83-49 to move to 21-9 on the season, and 13-4 in conference play.

Oregon State’s Tiara Bolden Grabs WCC Honor After 44 Points Over Two Games

The Toreros have been a basement dweller in the conference for the last few seasons, so this result isn’t surprising, though it’s magnitude is a bit eye-raising. The Beavers wasted no time putting San Diego into a hole, opening the first quarter on an 8-0 run that Tiara Bolden and Kennedie Shuler getting involved early. Oregon State held a 14 point, 26-12 lead after one.

The second quarter wasn’t as lopsided, but San Diego wasn’t able to make much headway into the Beaver lead. Six points from Olivia Owens kept San Diego within shooting distance, but defensive pressure from Kennedie Shuler and strong rebounding from Lizzy Williamson kept the Toreros under control. Oregon State ended the first half up by 13, 40-27.

Oregon State Dominates Cougars in 79-51 Blowout

Oregon State tightened their grip in the third. While Olivia Owens and Kylie Ray managed to give the Toreros some hope early in the quarter, Oregon State went on a run late in the period to get their lead to 21 at the highest. San Diego finally snapped the Beaver hot streak, but a three from Kennedie Shuler ended the quarter in a 61-43, 18 point Beaver lead.

The bottom seemed to fall out of San Diego in the fourth, with the Toreros only putting six points on the board. Tiara Bolden and Kennedie Shuler kept the points flowing for the Beavers, while Lizzy Willilamson continued to dominate the boards. A layup with an and one from Elisa Mehyar were the last Beaver points of the game, giving Oregon State a 34 point, 83-49 win.

Oregon State Takes Down Portland 64-54 in Season Saving Game

It was a good night for several Beavers, with Kennedie Shuler once again leading the team in scoring. She finished the night with 22 points, four rebounds, three assists, two blocks and two steals. She can do just about everything on the court.

Tiara Bolden continued her hot streak with a 17 point night, along with four rebounds and four assists. Jenna Villa added 14 points, one rebound and one assist. Lizzy Williamson added another double double to her resume, with 10 points and 12 rebounds.

Oregon State’s Winning Streak Ends With 55-51 Loss to LMU

There’s one last item on the agenda for Oregon State, a season-closing meeting with the Loyola Marymount Lions Saturday at Gill Coliseum. The Lions handed Oregon State their first WCC loss of the season back in January, so getting some revenge before the conference tournament would be a good statement from the team. Tip off is set for 1 PM PT.

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San Diego, CA

Live in San Diego? The city wants your feedback on the next fiscal budget in a survey

Published

1 day ago

February 26, 2026

Press Room

Live in San Diego? The city wants your feedback on the next fiscal budget in a survey

Mayor Todd Gloria sought the public’s feedback Thursday in shaping San Diego’s 2026-27 fiscal year budget, as the city launched a digital survey to help determine which programs and services are prioritized and which are reduced.

The survey is available at datasd.typeform.com/2027budget.

Officials will use responses in crafting the new budget, which takes effect on July 1. The City Charter deadline to release a draft budget is April 15, “allowing ample time for resident feedback to be considered during budget discussions,” officials said.

Gloria said that the city has already “closed hundreds of millions of dollars of a longstanding structural deficit, but we are not done. The next budget will require even tougher choices, and I want to be clear with residents: We will not be able to do everything we might like to do.

“I’m asking San Diegans to take a few minutes to tell us what matters most to them, and what they’re willing to forgo, as we build next year’s budget,” he added.

The five-minute survey is open to residents living within San Diego city limits. Those without home computer access can fill out the survey at any city library.

According to Gloria’s office, the city’s projected deficit is $120 million for the next budget, which the city is required by law to keep balanced.

In addition to asking what residents’ top priorities are, the survey asks if the city “should generate more revenue to protect services.”

Offered in English and Spanish, the survey is available until the start of May.

Officials said residents can also sound off on the budget process by attending City Council budget meetings either in person or via Zoom.

Council members will discuss the budget during their March 10 meeting, which starts at 6 p.m. at the City Administration Building downtown.

Public library locations can be found at sandiego.gov/public- library/locations.

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