Padres GM Hoyer: "We don't have a choice but to play the hot hand."

XX Sports Radio: Jed Hoyer Interview (MP3) with Darren Smith

• Winning a series in Colorado is unbelievable.  It is so hard to win there.  The Rockies have late inning magic.
• It was a frustrating weekend against San Francisco.  They missed opportunities to score and to separate themselves from the competition.
• Hoyer thinks the Cardinals will play hard, he doesn't see them rolling over.
• Chris Young is starting on Saturday. "I'm excited for what he can add to the team, but we're also excited for him." Young has thrown really well in his 3 minor league outings. They could have given him another rehab start to get him up to 90 pitches but they thought his stuff was good enough that he could throw 5-6 innings with the Padres.
• Jon Garland will start on Sunday. Monday is an off day and they'll re-establish the rotation after that.  Cory Luebke has pitched very well. He was brilliant for 4 innings in Colorado. "I think he's thrown really well."
• Hoyer and Black have had a long dialogue about Mat Latos's starts.  It's likely he'll pitch sometime in San Francisco.  They aren't ready to announce anything beyond that.
• The Padres were forced to put Cesar Carillo on waivers.  He hasn't lived up to his first round billing. "He's not a guy we wanted to give up, but we were forced to." It's frustrating that other teams will pick up a player off waivers and immediately put him back on waivers to try to get him in their organization without being on the roster.  They had the opportunity to pick him up again so they did.
  
• Jerry Hairston Jr. isn't limited but he isn't going to be pushed to play every day on the left side. "He brings a swagger to the team that helps us too."
• Hoyer and Black were just talking about making the line up with hot hitters. "We almost have to ride the hot hand. We've been inconsistent offensively for quite a while.  We have to score as many runs as possible and if that means playing the hot hand then that's what we have to do."  "We don't have a choice but to play the hot hand."