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Tom Krasovic: Freddie Freeman shows he can still swing it in Dodgers’ blowout win over Padres

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5 months ago

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Tom Krasovic: Freddie Freeman shows he can still swing it in Dodgers’ blowout win over Padres


Let’s begin here: Freddie Freeman is a baseball god, OK?

Cut the Padres some slack for their 8-2 loss Sunday to the Dodgers that nixed a three-game sweep and tied up the National League West’s top spot — which actually isn’t knotted because Los Angeles holds a tiebreaker.

The Padres were in trouble once Freeman found his “A” game, which for hitters of his era, belongs on the tip-top shelf.

Homering twice and also drawing a big-time walk that led to a run, Freeman made sure the Padres would not hold his team to one run for the third game in a row, despite more good work from ace Nick Pivetta.

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What lifts Freeman above other very good hitters?

His concise swing path — inside out — recalls Tony Gwynn, yet the lefty has home run power to all fields. Although this baseball era is too fast for many old hitters due the abundance of velocity and spin, Freeman is still raking as he nears his 36th birthday.

Baseball men marvel that the gangly Freeman, who’s 6-foot-4, somehow maintains a precise stroke.

“I wouldn’t teach anyone to do it like he does it,” a pitching coach told me two years ago. “He’s a freak.”

Age may have eroded some of his visual skills. His strikeout rate this year, though pretty good, is his highest in eight years.

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But age can’t harm his ability to read pitchers.

The walk Freeman drew off Pivetta in the first inning owed to Freeman laying off tough pitches.

The six-pitch walk loaded the bases with none out, sending L.A. to a 1-0 lead.

The Padres had gone ahead 2-1 when Freeman batted in the sixth with one out. And by then Pivetta had clicked into ace mode, having retired nine in a row.

Freeman carved Pivetta’s first pitch, a curveball, down the left-field line, meaning he stayed back on Pivetta’s slowest pitch (77 mph).

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Would the flick-shot land one of his famous inside-out doubles?

It tailed foul, a foot wide of the chalk.

Pivetta came back with a much speedier pitch. A fastball, it was 17 mph quicker.

Neither tardy nor hasty, Freeman met the misplaced 94-mph fastball flush with perfect launch.

As the ball soared beyond the right-center field wall, if Padres pitcher Nestor Cortes flashed back and grimaced in the dugout, it would have made sense.

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Cortes threw an inside fastball in Game 1 of the World Series last October that Freeman hit into the right-field pavilion at Dodger Stadium for the first walk-off grand slam in the event’s history. It began a run in which Freeman homered in four consecutive games, extending his World Series home run streak to six games.

The baseball god version of Freeman still exists. And if any doubts lingered in Sunday’s game, Freeman chased them by homering again off reliever Wandy Peralta. A lefty reliever, Peralta allows a long ball once every 70 at-bats. The sequence: slider for a strike, sinker for a foul ball, changeup for a home run.

Seamhead stuff

Padres relievers held L.A. to one run in six innings over the series’ first two games.

But Pivetta’s replacement, Jeremiah Estrada, gave up a three-run home run to rookie catcher Dalton Rushing after allowing two Dodgers to reach base.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said if lefty Adrian Morejon had been brought in to face Rushing, he would’ve sent up right-handed Will Smith, L.A.s’ main catcher.

Smith is a much better hitter than Rushing.

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The Dodgers had batted .368 with four home runs off Estrada. But the righty never faced Rushing, whose .505 OPS in 115 plate appearances was poor.

With Shohei Ohtani on deck, the Padres sought an inning-ending double play.

Estrada tried for it by throwing five sliders or split-fastballs rather than his No. 1 pitch, a fastball that pushes 100 mph.

Rushing didn’t hit the desired grounder, then let pass Estrada’s first fastball, loading the count. Opting for another a slider, Estrada dangled it. Rushing pulled it for his third home run.

“Baseball ain’t easy,” Estrada said.

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Padres fandom has its rough moments, too.

Roberts said a Padres fan wearing a Fernando Tatis Jr. jersey seated near L.A’s on-deck circle gave Ohtani a lot of guff, reminding the slugger of his struggles against the Padres in the series.

Ohtani answered with a home run in the top of the ninth. Then he went to the fan and slapped him on the hand.

With 31 games to go, the Padres will try to win their first National West title since Bruce Bochy’s final San Diego team edged L.A. in 2006. It’s hard to argue with the math of Padres hitter Gavin Sheets, who quipped that a 31-0 finish should get it done. “The atmosphere was great,” Sheets said of the three-game series. “It was good baseball to see.”

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San Diego, CA

Proposed fuel pipeline draws interest from investors. Can it give San Diego drivers a break?

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8 hours ago

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January 7, 2026

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Proposed fuel pipeline draws interest from investors. Can it give San Diego drivers a break?


Plenty of financial and regulatory hurdles still need to be cleared, but a fuels pipeline project that may lead to lower gas prices in San Diego and Southern California has received a healthy amount of interest from other companies.

Phillips 66 and Kinder Morgan have proposed building what they’ve dubbed the Western Gateway Pipeline that would use a combination of existing infrastructure plus new construction to establish a corridor for refined products that would stretch 1,300 miles from St. Louis to California.

If completed, one leg of the pipeline would be the first to deliver motor fuels into California, a state often described as a fuel island that is disconnected from refining hubs in the U.S.

The two companies recently announced the project “has received significant interest” from shippers and investors from what’s called an “open season” that wrapped up on Dec. 19 — so much so that a second round will be held this month for remaining capacity.

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“That’s a strong indicator that people would be willing to commit to put volume on that pipeline to bring it west long enough for them to be able to pay off their investment and provide a return for their investors,” said David Hackett, president of Stillwater Associates, a transportation energy consulting company in Irvine. “They won’t build this thing on spec. They’ll need commitments from shippers to do this.”

The plans for the Western Gateway Pipeline include constructing a new line from the Texas Panhandle town of Borger to Phoenix. Meanwhile, the flow on an existing pipeline that currently runs from the San Bernardino County community of Colton to Arizona would be reversed, allowing more fuel to remain in California.

The entire pipeline system would link refinery supply from the Midwest to Phoenix and California, while also providing a connection into Las Vegas.

The proposed route for the Western Gateway Pipeline, a project announced by Phillips 66 and Kinder Morgan designed to bring refined products like gasoline to states such as Arizona and keep more supplies within California. (Phillips 66)

A spokesperson for Kinder Morgan told the Union-Tribune in October that there are no plans for the project to construct any new pipelines in California and the proposal “should put downward pressure” on prices at the pump.

“With no new builds in California and using pipelines currently in place, it’s an all-around win-win — good for the state and consumers,” Kinder Morgan’s director of corporate communications, Melissa D. Ruiz, said in an email.

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The second round of “open season” will include offerings of new destinations west of Colton that would allow Western Gateway shippers access to markets in Los Angeles.

Even with sufficient investor support, the project would still have to go through an extensive regulatory and permitting process that would undoubtedly receive pushback from environmental groups.

Should the pipeline get built, Hackett said it’s hard to predict what it would mean at the pump for Southern California drivers. But he said the project could ensure more fuel inventory remains inside California, thus reducing reliance on foreign imports, especially given potential political tensions in the South China Sea.



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San Diego, CA

San Diego sues federal government over razor wire fence near U.S.-Mexico border

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20 hours ago

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January 6, 2026

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San Diego sues federal government over razor wire fence near U.S.-Mexico border


The city of San Diego has filed a lawsuit against the federal government that alleges the construction of a razor wire fence near the U.S.-Mexico border constitutes trespassing on city property and has caused environmental harm to the land.

The complaint filed Monday in San Diego federal court states that razor wire fencing being constructed by U.S. Marines in the Marron Valley area has harmed protected plant and wildlife habitats and that the presence of federal personnel there represents unpermitted trespassing.

The lawsuit, which names the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Defense among its defendants, says that city officials first discovered the presence of Marines and federal employees in the area in December.

The fencing under construction has blocked city officials from accessing the property to assess and manage the land, and the construction efforts have” caused and will continue to cause property damage and adverse environmental impacts,” according to the lawsuit.

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The suit seeks an injunction ordering the defendants to cease and desist from any further trespass or construction in the area.

“The city of San Diego will not allow federal agencies to disregard the law and damage city property,” City Attorney Heather Ferbert said in a statement. “We are taking decisive action to protect sensitive habitats, uphold environmental commitments and ensure that the rights and resources of our community are respected.”



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San Diego, CA

Padres roster review: Sung-Mun song

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1 day ago

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January 6, 2026

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Padres roster review: Sung-Mun song





Padres roster review: Sung-Mun song – San Diego Union-Tribune


















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SUNG-MUN SONG

  • Position(s): Third base, second base
  • Bats / Throws: Left / Right
  • 2026 opening day age: 29
  • Height / Weight: 6-foot / 194 pounds
  • How acquired: Signed as a free agent in December 2025
  • Contract status: A four-year, $15 million deal will see Song make $2.5 million in 2026, $3 million in 2027, $3.5 million in 2028 and $4 million in 2029 if he does not opt out of last year; Half of his $1 million signing bonus is due in January 2026 and the other half in 2027; There is a $7 million mutual option for 2030.
  • fWAR in 2025: N/A
  • Key 2025 stats (KBO): .315 AVG, .387 OBP, .530 SLG, 26 HRs, 90 RBIs, 103 runs, 68 walks, 96 strikeouts, 25 steals (144 games, 646 plate appearances)

 

STAT TO NOTE

  • .214 — Song’s isolated power in 2025, a career high as he prepared for a jump to the majors. Isolated power measures a player’s raw power (extra bases per at-bat) and Song had a .190 OPS in 2018, in his third year as a pro in Korea, before it dropped to .101 in 2019 and then a career-low .095 in 2023. Hitting 19 homers pushed Song’s isolated power to .178 in 2024 and then a career-high 26 homers push it even higher in 2025.

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