You know your team is bad when they lose a series to the A's. We can look at the Padres record and be pretty sure that they're a terrible team, but losing to the A's is the true litmus test. Thanks to Clayton Richard we didn't have to suffer the humiliation of being swept. We also didn't have to watch Gomes admire his home run for a half hour for a second day in a row.

Richard won his first road game since last July by mixing up his pitches and relying on his team's defense. He in turn spent his post game press conference defending his teammate Nick Hundley whose hitting has been indefensible.