The Padres took the first game of this weekend's NL West showdown series against the Giants in much the same fashion as they have been beating the Giants all year: By scoring just enough runs and then letting their phenomenal bullpen finish it off.
If you want to find a distinction between the two teams, a reason that the Padres are 3 1/2 games ahead of the Giants, it is the bullpen.
"We said in spring training that we are going to be the reason this team wins or loses," closer Heath Bell said after pitching the third of three impressive innings by the Padres' relievers in Friday's 3-2 victory. "We are the core. We took pride in that, and we wanted to become one of the best bullpens out there."
They have. The Padres now have a bullpen ERA of 2.68, which is the best in the league. Coming into this series, opponents were hitting .211 against the Padres bullpen. That's 16 points better than the No. 2 Braves and 35 points better than the No. 3 Giants.
They have been the difference in the Padres' 8-1 record against the Giants. Five of those games have been one-run victories, and the Padres' bullpen has a 1.61 ERA against San Francisco.
You know about Bell, the man at the end. A two-time All-Star, Bell now leads the league with 35 saves. But the Padres' setup men are just as good, if not better.
Start with Luke Gregerson, the seventh-inning man. He was a 28th-round draft choice of the Cardinals. The Padres grabbed him as a player to be named in the March 2009 trade of Khalil Greene. All Gregerson has done is post a 2.89 ERA in two big league seasons, including a spotless 0.00 mark in 14 games against the Giants.
"He has an unbelievable slider," Bell said. "Like it's two sliders in one, one that slides across and one that slides down. He has a changeup that no one even realizes, and he has a pretty good fastball."
On Friday night, Gregerson easily retired all three Giants batters he faced, passing the baton to eighth-inning man Mike Adams. Adams gave up just a bloop single in his scoreless eighth, against the meat of the Giants' lineup.
Adams was a non-drafted free agent back in 2001, who proceeded to bounce from the Brewers to the Mets to the Indians before the Padres grabbed him in a deal for – wait for it – Brian Sikorski.
Now, Adams is one of the stars of the Padres bullpen. He has a 1.99 ERA, and he's one of the reasons the Padres are 52-3 when leading after seven innings.
"He has every pitch in the book," Bell said.
Gregerson-Adams-Bell is the Padres' typical seven-eight-nine, but they've also gotten outstanding work from lefty Joe Thatcher (1.46 ERA), righty Tim Stauffer (0.76), righty Edward Mujica (3.44) and righty Ryan Webb (3.05), who got bounced to Triple-A temporarily because there was no room.
The youngster in the bullpen is 25-year-old rookie Ernesto Frieri (0.87). He plays a vital role, though. As the low man on the service-time totem pole, Frieri is responsible for carrying the Yoda backpack full of snacks for the relievers. The point of the backpack is mostly to embarrass the guy who has to carry it, but Yoda has now become a symbol for the Padres' relief corps.
Padres fans, perhaps the only folks in the country who properly appreciate this bullpen, have started bringing their own versions of the Star Wars character to the ballpark.
"It kind of took fire," Bell said.
When Webb was responsible for Yoda, he had hung the backpack in the bullpen in Houston. A security guard commented that it looked as if Yoda had been executed.
Webb's response: "Even Jedis don't stand a chance against our bullpen."
