San Diego, CA
Padres Daily: Some things to clean up; remembering ’21
Good morning from Miami,
Even as the Padres once again demonstrated their greatest virtue, their greatest weakness showed up.
You can read in my game story (here) about how the Padres fell behind by five runs yesterday and almost came all the way back before losing 7-6 to the Marlins.
The sole loss on their six-game road trip was completed only after an apparent home run by Ha-Seong Kim with two outs in the ninth inning was overturned.
And, yes, Dylan Cease had an off day. And so did the defense.
But those are not recurring issues.
Middle relievers surrendering crucial runs is.
The Padres were within a run, at 5-4 in yesterday’s seventh inning, when Yuki Matsui gave up a two-run homer.
The Padres relievers charged with not letting little deficits become big ones have failed time and again.
If you weren’t appreciative before this trip for what A.J. Preller was able to perpetrate at the trade deadline, you weren’t paying attention. If you’re not appreciative now, you must be a Dodgers fan.
It could be argued that as many as five of the Padres’ seven consecutive victories from Saturday to Saturday could have/would have been losses if not for Preller having acquired some combination of Jason Adam, Bryan Hoeing and Tanner Scott at the deadline.
As has been noted in this space — and by some players — the Padres would be well served to score early and/or often and not have to keep coming back to win games. Further, they have gotten just two quality starts in their past 12 games.
These tight contests are forcing their bullpen to work overtime. And the reality is, while winning four straight games by coming back in the final two innings is impressive, it is also a little bit lucky.
They won those games with big hits and a retooled bullpen, not to mention a couple fine plays by Manny Machado. But they were preilously close to losing all of them as well.
All this to say, as good as the Padres have been, they have some things to tighten up.
Update, flashback
Here is the state of the National League wild-card race:
You want another reason to appreciate what happened at the trade deadline?
You might recall it was not that long ago that a Padres team cratered at this point in the season.
Three years ago yesterday, the Padres dropped the finale of a series against the Marlins after winning the first two games. The Padres were 16 games above .500 and sat in the second of what were at the time two wild-card playoff spots, 4½ games ahead of the Reds.
What ensued was one the worst collapses in the history of Major League Baseball, as the Padres closed with a 12-34 record to finish the season 79-83. Just three times since the formation of the American Association in 1882 had a team with a winning record with 46 games to play have a worse record than the 12-34 mark the Padres posted.
There were myriad issues with that ’21 team that are not present this year.
The biggest problem — by far — that season was a lack of pitching depth. The rotation was hit by a rash of injuries, the bullpen was overworked, and the trade deadline provided no real reinforcements.
So that the Padres feel good enough about their starting rotation that they sent Randy Vásquez to Triple-A on Saturday and have the aforementioned new bullpen pieces should be the biggest comforts when pondering this season’s final 43 games.
Cease’s struggle
Cease wasn’t blaming his subpar start yesterday on his truncated start Tuesday.
After allowing the Marlins five runs (two earned) in the first two innings, Cease said he wasn’t rusty as a result of rain having cut short his start five days earlier in Pittsburgh after one inning and 14 pitches.
“I don’t think so,” he said. “I got good practice in. I think it was just one of those games. … I felt good going into it. I just wasn’t quite as crisp as I have been.”
Cease ended up completing five innings without any further damage, which did allow the Padres to chip away at a fixed deficit.
Even now, Cease has a 1.33 ERA over his past seven starts (40⅔ innings).
For all his excellence, however, yesterday was not entirely an anomaly. It was the fourth start this season in which he has allowed five or more runs in five or fewer innings.
Reynolds makes it to Miami
Hoeing and Scott, who the Padres got from the Marlins on July 30, spent portions of the weekend catching up with former teammates.
Yesterday, Sean Reynolds joined them, talking and laughing before the game with Marlins coaches and former minor-league teammates.
Then he went out and faced the team that drafted him in 2016 as a first baseman and moved him to pitcher in 2021.
“The journey to get to that mound was pretty incredible and definitely not how I saw my first time pitching in that stadium unfolding,” he said.
Reynolds, who was in Triple-A when he was acquired by the Padres along with Garrett Cooper at last year’s trade deadline, made his major league debut for the Padres on July 14. He was optioned July 28 and recalled yesterday, arriving in Miami a few hours before the game.
He worked a scoreless sixth inning, stranding a runner at third by striking out the final two batters, before yielding a single at the start of the seventh and being replaced by Matsui.
Round 3?
Machado struck out to end the eighth inning in consecutive games against Aroldis Chapman last week in Pittsburgh.
The first one ended on a 105 mph sinker than Chapman threw to the inside edge of the strike zone, freezing Machado, who then shook his head and grinned as Chapman looked back at him smiling.
Manny Machado was left speechless by this Aroldis Chapman 104.7 MPH fastball 😮 pic.twitter.com/w8opxiHUIO
— MLB (@MLB) August 8, 2024
“He dotted that 105,” Machado said before leaving Pittsburgh. “I mean, you gotta give your respect to that. I mean … there’s nothing you can do with that pitch right there.”
In their faceoff Thursday, Chapman got ahead with two splitters, one of them a called strike on a pitch up and away. Then he missed with a 101 mph sinker and Machado fouled off a 103 mph sinker before swinging over a splitter.
“That was tough (Wednesday),” Machado said. “And then he came (Thursday) and threw me a couple splits — one that was off the zone. But whatever, I’ll get my rematch next week.”
Next week is now. The Pirates are at Petco Park the next three days.
Tidbits
- Jackson Merrill was 0-for-4 yesterday, bringing an end to his hitting streak after six games. But he reached on a fielder’s choice and scored in a seventh consecutive game.
- Luis Arraez was 3-for-4 and has eight hits in 20 at-bats during a four-game hitting streak.
- David Peralta was 1-for-4 with a double and two RBIs. He is 7-for-16 with three doubles during a four-game hitting streak.
- A day after he stranded two inherited runners and went on to work 2⅓ scoreless innings, Jhony Brito was optioned to Triple-A. The Padres needed to fortify the bullpen, so Reynolds was recalled.
- Joe Musgrove will make his first start since May 26 tonight. I wrote yesterday (here) about some alterations Musgrove has made in his delivery to alleviate stress on his elbow.
All right, that’s it for me. Early flight this morning and then a Musgrove Monday night.
Talk to you tomorrow.
Originally Published:
San Diego, CA
Judge sentences rapper to time served in 2023 San Diego arrest
Rapper Boosie Badazz was sentenced Friday to credit for time served in the case stemming from his 2023 arrest in San Diego for being a felon in possession of a firearm.
The 43-year-old, whose real name is Torence Ivy Hatch Jr., was arrested in Chollas View after police found two guns inside a vehicle in which he was riding.
Hatch was in town to shoot a music video and perform at a Gaslamp Quarter nightclub.
In a social media video clip recorded during the video shoot, Hatch was spotted with a gun in his waistband. Police then used a helicopter to track down his vehicle, after which officers conducted a traffic stop and discovered the firearms.
He pleaded guilty to a federal gun possession count last year. As part of his sentence, Hatch will also serve 300 hours of community service.
Defense attorney Meghan Blanco said in a statement released after Friday’s hearing, “The resolution brings a sense of relief, allowing him to finally put this chapter behind him. He can now focus on continuing his music career, dedicating time to his family, and being a positive and inspiring presence for his children and the wider community.”
Federal prosecutors sought a two-year prison sentence, arguing in court papers that custody was warranted due to Hatch’s “insistence on carrying a weapon despite his status as a convicted felon” and allegations that he threatened his security detail shortly after his arrest.
Blanco, in her sentencing memorandum, denied any such threats occurred, noting that the statements are not included in any police reports stemming from the arrest and that no recorded evidence of the threats exist.
The defense attorney wrote that Hatch’s gun was never fired, brandished or used to threaten anyone. She also said there have been no allegations that the weapons were intended for any other offense and that Hatch’s last criminal case had occurred around 10 years prior.
“The case represents an isolated lapse in judgment, not a pattern of ongoing criminal conduct,” Blanco wrote.
Hatch was initially charged by the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office. His defense attorneys have stated that Hatch intended to plead guilty at the time and was expected to be sentenced to probation, but the state’s case was dismissed before that plea deal could be reached and federal prosecutors took up the case.
U.S. District Judge Cathy Bencivengo, who sentenced Hatch on Friday, previously dismissed the case against him following a 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that said it was unconstitutional to prohibit convicted felons who served sentences for nonviolent drug offenses from possessing firearms.
But a larger panel of the 9th Circuit overturned its earlier ruling and San Diego federal prosecutors re-filed the charges against Hatch.
Hatch was previously convicted in Louisiana of marijuana possession. He also was indicted in an alleged murder-for-hire plot, but was acquitted by a Baton Rouge jury in 2012.
San Diego, CA
Mayor Gloria defends Balboa Park paid parking, blames council for rocky rollout
San Diego will put off issuing citations for paid parking in Balboa Park for about one month while improvements are made, but Mayor Todd Gloria says the new system is functioning well and being “actively adopted.”
In a long and harshly worded memo released Thursday, Gloria said recent calls by City Council members to suspend the program were politically motivated and examples of bad governance and erratic decision-making.
Gloria also deflected blame for the chaotic way enforcement began Monday, when city officials raced to put stickers about resident discounts on parking kiosks and lobbied a vendor to deliver crucial missing signs.
The mayor said the council had “shaped, amended and approved” paid parking in Balboa Park and contended an accelerated timeline chosen by the council made it hard for his administration to implement it flawlessly.
The mayor’s memo came in response to a Tuesday memo from Councilmembers Kent Lee and Sean Elo-Rivera in which they called implementation of paid parking “haphazard” and “not ready for prime time.”
Lee and Elo-Rivera said the process for city residents to get approved for discounts was so complex, cumbersome and confusing that Gloria should waive fees for residents until they have had time to adapt and learn.
While Gloria rejected that suggestion in part of his memo, he later said “enforcement remains focused on education, not punishment, during this early phase, to ensure park users are aware of the new parking fees.”
Dave Rolland, a spokesperson for Gloria, said Thursday that no specific date had been set for when the city would shift from education to enforcement. But he added that “about a month” would be an accurate timeline.
City officials have already corrected one key mistake: Signs that were missing Monday — alerting drivers that the 951-space lower Inspiration Point lot is free for three hours — have since been installed.
Lee and Elo-Rivera in their memo decried “an inadequate effort to educate the public on how to use this new system.”
They said San Diegans had not been clearly informed about when a portal for city resident discounts would go live or how to use it.
And they complained that residents weren’t told they couldn’t buy discounted parking passes in person, or when enforcement with citations would actually begin.
City residents must apply for discounts online, pay $5 to have their residency verified, then wait two days for that verification and choose the day they will visit in advance.
Lee and Elo-Rivera called the city’s efforts “a haphazard rollout that will surely lead to San Diegans missing out on their resident discount and paying higher parking rates than they have to.”
Gloria said the city collected $23,000 in parking fees on Monday and Tuesday and another $106,000 in daily, monthly and quarterly passes — mostly from residents who get discounts on such passes.
“Early data shows that the program is functioning and being used,” he said. “These are not the metrics of a system that is failing to function. They are the metrics of a system that is new, actively being adopted, and continuing to improve as public familiarity increases.”
While Gloria conceded that some improvements are still necessary, he rejected calls from Lee and Elo-Rivera for a suspension, citing his concerns it would jeopardize city finances and confuse the public.
“Your proposal to suspend paid parking for residents two days into the new program would have immediate and serious fiscal consequences,” Gloria said. “This reversal could introduce confusion among park users and would disregard investments already made to establish the system, potentially compromising the program’s effectiveness.”
Paid parking in Balboa Park is expected to generate about $3.7 million during the fiscal year that ends June 30, but revenue is expected to rise substantially when the fees are in place for a full fiscal year.
Gloria said the money is a small part of the city’s overall solution to recurring deficits it faces of more than $100 million per year.
“What we will not do is reverse course days into implementation in a way that undermines fiscal stability, creates uncertainty, and sends the message that addressing a decades-old structural budget deficit that has plagued our city is optional because it is politically uncomfortable,” he said. “That kind of erratic decision-making is not good governance, and San Diegans deserve better.”
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the San Diego Zoo said Thursday that paid parking there has continued to go smoothly since it began on Monday.
The zoo, which is using Ace Parking for enforcement, opted for immediate citations instead of an educational grace period.
San Diego, CA
Barricaded individual in custody following police response in Mission Valley
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — San Diego Police responded to a barricaded individual in the Mission Valley area Thursday afternoon, prompting a heavy law enforcement presence.
- The Nexstar Media video above details resources for crime victims
The department confirmed around 1 p.m. that officers were on scene in the 1400 block of Hotel Circle North, and are working to safely resolve the situation. Authorities asked the public to avoid the area and allow officers the space needed to conduct their operations.
Police described the incident as a domestic violence restraining order violation. At this time, it’s unknown if the person is armed.
No injuries have been reported.
The suspect was taken into custody within an hour.
Further details about the barricaded person were not immediately released. Police say updates will be shared as more information becomes available.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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