The young phenom gets welcomed rudely… the old dog’s bite is pretty good.

A night at the ballpark was interesting.  The Padres lost another home game,  in what has been a downward spiral at Petco Park since early May.  Last place is in sight, and we’re not even to July 4th yet.

But last night’s game with the Pirates was an interesting display for young and old.  Rookie Jesse Hahn, who has only pitched as high as Double A-got the start and was good the first time thru the batting order.

Grizzled veteran Jason Lane, a journeyman at best, converting from outfielder to pitcher, was something to see, a 37-year old throwing perfection in his first ever major league pitching peformance.

Hahn struck out 5-early, then the 2nd time thru the batting order Pittsburgh waited him out, and took him deep, a Neil Walker opposite field blast, and a Pedro Alvarez screaming linedrive homer to right.  The kid hung tough, but he does not have enough stuff to stay in the rotation.

Lane was a power hitting outfielder, who began his career 15-years ago.  He had 3-good seasons with the Astros, stopped hitting, and got buried in the minors.  He converted to pitcher and has gotten better and better the last three years.  Out of desperation he got called up.

Lane retired 10-batters in a row, in 3-plus perfect innings out of the bullpen, and went thru the heart of the Pirates order too.  Impressive, his craftiness, his guile, his attitude.

So in what is turning out to be an otherwise dreary summer of baseball, we stop paying attention to the woeful seasons of Gyrko-Headley-Grandal, the injury issues of Quentin, and the pitching surgeries.

Hahn gave us a sneak preview and definitely has some stuff to do this.  Lane wowed us to the point he should get another chance, maybe even a start too.  There will be better days for Hahn; it was some day for Lane.

The logo on the sleeve of the uniform is the swinging friar.  The standings in the paper today read (26-33)-the swing and miss Friars.  But for 1-nite we paid attention to why they play the game, to get to the show, like Jessie Hahn, and to want to stay in the show like Jason Lane. 

We now return you to your regularly scheduled strugging franchise… 

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