Opening day for the Padres and the Giants and I'm here to report on the action as it happens.

If you are a Giants or Padres fan watch this space for live updates! I'll be updating this entry at the end of each half inning.

The Giants have their new ace Barry Zito starting the game. The Padres start Jake Peavy. Both Zito and Peavy had disappointing years last year. Zito went 16-10 with a 3.83 ERA and Peavy went 11-14 with a 4.09 ERA.

Brian Giles hit a double and Adrian Gonzalez hit a single to knock in Giles and give the Padres a 1-0 lead.

Overall Zito looked pretty good in the first inning despite allowing the run.

Now the Giants are up. Bonds is batting third now so he is guaranteed to come up in the first inning. New lead off hitter Dave Roberts is up first. Not an awful at bat but he's out on 5 pitches. Ball hit on the ground towards first base. Vizquel struck out. Bonds got a full count and then hit a ground ball towards the gap at third for a single. Bonds 1 for 1 batting 1.000 my friends. Bonds steals second! Ray Durham now with an RBI opportunity hits the ball to SS for what looks like an easy out but the 1B drops the ball on the throw. Bonds sees this and runs for home unfortunately for the Giants the Padres recover and he's thrown out at home.

Top of the second goes easily for the Giants. Padres down 1 2 3. Bonds looks good in LF on the third out. Giants fans all over have to be happy with what they are seeing from Barry Bonds early. He looks healthy, much healthier than last season.

Padres up 1 to 0 going into the bottom of the second inning.

The Giants have Aurilia, Molina, and Feliz coming up. I'm happy that the Giants have moved Molina up in the lineup from the projection I listed earlier today. Feliz put up a pretty good battle but the Giants went down in order as well.

Padres up 1 to 0 after 2.

Padres down in order in the top of the 3rd. Zito is looking really good. Unfortunately for Giants fans (and you may have noticed this includes ME) Peavy has looked very good too.

The Giants have Winn, Zito, and Roberts coming up. I don't remember where I read it but I do remember reading that Zito likes to hit and that's one of the reasons he came to the NL so I'm interested to him up at the plate.

Well he didn't look too good. He's 1 for 30 life time now. Two outs.

Roberts got to first base on a short hit that Peavy dropped. He really showed his speed on this hit. Unfortunately Vizquel couldn't take advantage. He lined out to center. Bonds will lead off the 4th for the Giants.

At the end of 3 innings it's still Padres 1 and the Giants 0.

Top of the 4th is going badly for the Giants. Zito walks the lead off hitter Mike Cameron who comes around and scores on Josh Bard's single up the middle. Feliz makes an error on the next ball hit in play to put men on first and second. Another hit loads the bases and then Zito walks in a run! Luckily Zito was able to get Peavy to hit into a double play to stop the bleeding.

The Padres are up 3 to 0 after 3 and a half innings.

Bonds walked on 5 pitches to start the Giants half of the 4th inning. Durham strikes out. Aurilla pops up. Molina pops up. Ouch! Hate to see Bonds' walks wasted like that. Peavy is looking very much in control.

Zito had a good top of the 5th with 2 strike outs.

Padres 3 to 0.

In the bottom of the 5th Winn is walked and so Zito is PH for with Lance Niekro. Unfortunately Niekro is struck out anyway. Roberts flies out to end the inning. Jake Peavy is just rolling through the Giants with ease right now. Still 3 to 0.

Top of the 6th goes easily for the Giants and relief pitcher Kevin Correia. 3 up and 3 down.

Time for the Giants to make some noise!

Vizquel, Bonds, and Durham are due up.

Vizquel flies out. Bonds grounds out to first. Durham gets a hit. Actually the first real hit of the game for the Giants. Can the Giants get something started? It's up to Rich Aurilia. Aurilia gets it to a full count and hit the ball pretty solidly but alas just a fly out. Inning over and it's still 3 to 0.

The Padres have tagged another run on their lead. It's now 4 to 0 heading into the bottom half o the 7th. Things do not look good for the San Francisco Giants.

The Padres have made what I hope to be a huge mistake. They've replaced Peavy who was just mowing down the Giants. Cla Meredith has relieved him. Molina singles off him to give the Giants some hope. Unfortunately Feliz strikes out. But Winn singles. Men on first and second. Some excitement in San Fran? Ryan Klesko is pinch hitting for the pitcher. He hit .280 last year.

Ouch. Double play. I think that was the Giants big chance but the top of the lineup is up next inning.

After 7 innings it's Padres 4 & Giants 0.

After the Padres top of the 8th it's 7 to 0. I was worried about the Giants relief pitching and today's game certainly hasn't changed that. Just ouch all around my friends. Awful day for the Giants.

Sure now the top of the lineup comes up but it's probably way too late to make a difference. Giants need a miracle starting now!

No miracle but Bonds hit a fly ball to the warning track which while it doesn't count for anything was a nice display of power. 1 for 3 with a walk for the game for Barry.

Still 7 to 0 with one inning left.

Final Score

Padres 7, Giants 0.

Great game for Padres starter Jake Peavy who pitched 6 scoreless innings with 6 strike outs and only 3 hits allowed and Padres catcher Josh Bard who went 4 for 5.

Labels: San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants