Perhaps the surest sign that something is rotten with the Padres is when you see Khalil go Buckner on a ground ball….If that’s happened to him before in a major league game, then I haven’t seen it.

I watched the last innings of this at a bar in New York, where they put it on after the Yankees ass-kicking by the Orioles ended. I didn’t see CY pitch, but it looks like he had a good line, which is maybe the sole positive.

P-Mac pretty obviously might not be worth in offense what he’s going to cost in defense. I could deal with Evil Chris Young playing Center a little more like Jim Edmonds…because there were some towering drives that I thought were sure doubles until ECY came down with them.

My biggest question, though--you have Kevin Cameron in, runners in 2nd and 3rd, 1 out. You intentionally walk a guy to get a force at every base….Now, I realize Cameron hadn’t been in there long, but at this point why don’t you bring in Cla Meredith-who has one of the craziest GB/FB ratios in the entire league—to try to get the double play? Leaving Cameron in, you get a deep fly-out that costs the Padres another run. And 5-3 is a lot different in the 8th inning than 4-3. The game is, at that point, not exactly lost….but a lot tougher. All the bullshit that happened after, Khalil mucking a grounder and K-Cam melting down, was almost beside the point. So, then once it’s 10-3….then you bring in Cla? If he was available, why not bring him in when it still mattered? I was baffled by what in God’s name was going on there.

Portents of a very long season. For my own sanity, I’m tempering my own expectations a bit. The power will come back, I think—-how can it not, for Khalil, Adrian, Kouz? They’re not injured, and it’s been part of their game their entire careers. But these blow-outs are starting to get uglier and uglier.

“They are bound to get better, but they are not likely to get good.”

That may end up being very true.