Batter's eye drives Padres batty in loss

By: BRIAN HIRO - Staff Writer | Sunday, September 5, 2004 8:25 PM PDT ∞

Padres pitcher Blaine Neal argues with homeplate umpire Mike DiMuro after DiMuro threw Neal out of the game for hitting the Rockies batter J.D. Glosser with a pitch during the eighth inning on Sunday.
Hayne Palmour
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SAN DIEGO ---- The batter's eye in baseball is the device that prevents hitters from losing sight of the tiny white pill emerging from a pitcher's hand amid the swarm of distracting motions beyond the outfield fence. The batter's eye in Petco Park takes the form of a big green wall behind center field ---- think a mini Green Monster ---- atop which are now perched the Padres' five retired numbers.

According to one Padre, however, the big green wall isn't big enough. And according to several others, visiting Colorado exploited a weakness in the batter's eye, a development they claim played a major role in Sunday afternoon's 5-2 loss to the Rockies before 33,272 that further damaged their dimming playoff hopes.

After getting swept in St. Louis, the Padres dropped two of three games to a Colorado club that on Sunday trotted out six rookies, thus remaining six games behind Los Angeles in the National League West and falling 2 1/2 behind the Chicago Cubs and San Francisco in the wild-card race. It doesn't get any easier, either, not with the Cardinals coming to town with baseball's best record while the Dodgers host hapless Arizona.

"No disrespect to that team over there," Padres first baseman Phil Nevin said, "but we're in a race right now and these are games that we should win."

Rockies starter Jeff Francis, one of those six rookies, ensured that the Padres wouldn't by pitching 5 1/3 shutout innings to earn his first major-league victory. The 23-year-old left-hander came into the game with plenty of talent ---- he was Colorado's first-round draft pick in 2002 ---- but also with an 0-2 record and 13.50 ERA.

So how did Francis so dramatically reverse his fortunes? Francis simply explained that he jumped ahead of batters in the count more frequently.

Padres manager Bruce Bochy said Francis "hides the ball, and we had trouble picking it up today."

Padres players took it one step further. Both starter Brian Lawrence and left fielder Ryan Klesko said the secret to Francis' success was that he positioned his feet on the edge of the first-base side of the rubber, which, combined with his 6-foot-5 stature and three-quarters delivery, meant that he released the ball at a point where the batter's eye offered no protection.

"We couldn't see a thing," said Lawrence, who struck out trying to lay down a sacrifice bunt in the third inning. "To be honest with you, I was up there trying to bunt and I was bunting at air, basically. I don't know what the specific ruling is for that, but he was definitely off the end of the rubber."

Baseball rules state that a pitcher's foot only must be in contact with the rubber, which Francis' was. Klesko said the visual problem was amplified for the Padres' right-handed hitters because of the different angle, but that even he had trouble picking up a couple of curveballs.

"Not to take anything away from the kid, but I know some of the right-handers were swinging at stuff they usually don't swing at," said Klesko, who was hitless in two at-bats against Francis.

Klesko went on to claim that the Padres' batter's eye is the smallest one in the majors ---- the minimum size allowed, he said ---- and that he and Nevin approached team management in the offseason with a request to widen the wall.

"Here we are in a playoff run and we've got hitters who can't see the ball," Klesko said. "That's uncalled for."

Though Lawrence said it was "common knowledge" in the Padres' dugout that the batter's eye was the issue, Bochy countered that no such complaints reached his ears.

"I heard that they had trouble seeing the ball, but I didn't know that it was coming out of the background," he said. "If that's the case, we have to do something about it."

While Francis thrived and the Padres went scoreless until Nevin's 21st home run in the eighth inning, the long ball again proved to be the Padres' undoing. Jeromy Burnitz sliced a low outside sinker from Lawrence for a two-run home run in the second, and Vinny Castilla and rookie Matt Holliday added solo shots off reliever Blaine Neal in the eighth. After Holliday went deep, Neal was ejected for plunking the next hitter, J.D. Closser.

Contact staff writer Brian Hiro at b_hiro@hotmail.com.