I recently found an archive of 3 years worth of old emails from 1998 to 2001. The basic premise behind "Before the Blog" is that I search the emails for references to the Padres and then post one of the emails each week for our collective enjoyment.
On 4/5/1999, it was the day after Opening Day, just like today. The Padres had opened the 1999 season at Qualcomm Stadium against the Colorado Rockies. Andy Ashby was pummeled. He gave up 6 runs and wasn't even able to record an out in the 2nd inning before Bruce Bochy pulled him from the game.
| Inn | Score | Out | R/O | @Bat | Batter | Pitcher | wWPA | wWE | Play Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top of the 1st, Rockies Batting, Tied 0-0, Padres' Andy Ashby facing 1-2-3 | |||||||||
| t1 | 0-0 | 0 | COL | D. Hamilton | A. Ashby | 4% | 54% | Single to LF (Line Drive to Short LF) | |
| t1 | 0-0 | 0 | O | COL | N. Perez | A. Ashby | -3% | 50% | Groundout: P-SS/Forceout at 2B (P's Right) |
| t1 | 0-0 | 1 | COL | L. Harris | A. Ashby | 2% | 52% | Perez Steals 2B | |
| t1 | 0-0 | 1 | O | COL | L. Harris | A. Ashby | -3% | 48% | Strikeout Swinging |
| t1 | 0-0 | 2 | R | COL | D. Bichette | A. Ashby | 9% | 57% | Single to RF (Fly Ball); Perez Scores |
| t1 | 1-0 | 2 | COL | V. Castilla | A. Ashby | 2% | 59% | Single to LF (Ground Ball thru SS-3B Hole); Bichette to 2B | |
| t1 | 1-0 | 2 | O | COL | T. Helton | A. Ashby | -4% | 55% | Strikeout Swinging |
| 1 run, 3 hits, 0 errors, 2 LOB. Rockies 1, Padres 0. | |||||||||
| Top of the 2nd, Rockies Batting, Tied 1-1, Padres' Andy Ashby facing 7-8-9 | |||||||||
| t2 | 1-1 | 0 | COL | M. Lansing | A. Ashby | 4% | 54% | Single to CF (Ground Ball) | |
| t2 | 1-1 | 0 | COL | K. Manwaring | A. Ashby | 6% | 59% | Walk; Lansing to 2B | |
| t2 | 1-1 | 0 | COL | D. Kile | A. Ashby | 8% | 67% | Walk; Lansing to 3B; Manwaring to 2B | |
| t2 | 1-1 | 0 | R | COL | D. Hamilton | A. Ashby | 8% | 75% | Single to CF (Ground Ball thru SS-2B); Lansing Scores; Manwaring to 3B; Kile to 2B |
| t2 | 2-1 | 0 | R | COL | N. Perez | A. Ashby | 7% | 82% | Single to RF (Ground Ball thru 2B-1B); Manwaring Scores; Kile to 3B; Hamilton to 2B |
| t2 | 3-1 | 0 | R | COL | L. Harris | A. Ashby | 5% | 87% | Single to LF (Line Drive); Kile Scores; Hamilton to 3B; Perez to 2B |
| t2 | 4-1 | 0 | RR | COL | D. Bichette | A. Ashby | 6% | 93% | Single to CF (Line Drive); Hamilton Scores; Perez Scores; Harris to 3B |
| Brian Boehringer replaces Andy Ashby pitching and batting 9th |
|||||||||
Even though it was a beautiful day in Mission Valley with an 82° F temperature at start time, a gentle 15 mph breeze and the Padres were coming off a World Series appearance, it sounds like neither of us attended. Not many others did either, Baseball Reference says that the Opening Day attendance was 27,104.
Here's the email I sent to Dex, followed by his response.
Date: Mon 4/5/1999 8:49 AM
Subject: Re:
Did you see that Padres game yesterday?
Ash had some problems.This Padres team
didn't give me the feeling that they could
come back from a 6-1 deficit, like in the
old days. Before you would wait til vaughn
or cammi got up to bat and see if they
couldn't score some RBI's. Now if they get
behind, the games over.
Date: Mon 4/5/1999 10:20 AM
Subject: Re:
The way I figure it, if it wasn't the opening
game and if it wasn't Andy Ashby pitching,
they would have pulled him out as soon as
the bases got loaded. You figure Ashby didn't
have his stuff but since it was the first game
they had to let him try to work it out. The
bullpen only gave up another run and the
Bichette HR was really interference. I agree
that they have trouble making comebacks
now but, except for Ashby, it was kind of a
close game. What's nice is if the Pads get
ahead at least we know the bullpen can do
some strong innings right?
| Pitching | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | BF | Pit | Str | Ctct | StS | StL | GB | FB | LD | Unk | GSc | IR | IS | WPA | RE24 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andy Ashby, L (0-1) | 1 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 54.00 | 13 | 42 | 26 | 19 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 13 | -0.486 | 1.35 | -6.8 | ||
| Brian Boehringer | 4 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0.00 | 16 | 76 | 48 | 30 | 6 | 12 | 6 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0.097 | 0.33 | 3.4 | |
| Carlos Reyes | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4.50 | 8 | 30 | 19 | 12 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -0.012 | 0.10 | 0.0 | |
| Trevor Hoffman | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 3 | 15 | 10 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.004 | 0.05 | 0.5 | |
| Dan Miceli | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 9.00 | 5 | 25 | 21 | 16 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -0.003 | 0.05 | -0.5 | |
| Team Totals | 9 | 18 | 8 | 8 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 8.00 | 45 | 188 | 124 | 84 | 19 | 21 | 17 | 20 | 10 | 0 | 13 | 2 | 0 | -0.400 | 0.49 | -3.4 |