Nevin, Nady Power Friars Past Bucs

Xavier Nady and Phil Nevin provided everything Woody Williams would need and more as the San Diego Padres decimated the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates 11-3. Woody provided six strong innings allowing three Runs on five Hits and one Walk. Woody looked almost as good as he did against the Bucs last year as he held the visitors to only one base-runner per inning and struck out five more than he walked. Tonight's solid outting reduced Williams' atrocious season ERA from 16.20 to a merely ugly 8.68. Behind Williams, Scott Linebrink, Akinori Otsuka and Darrell May each provided a scoreless frame.

Nady's 3-run bomb was his third homerun of the season and has left this Padre fan asking, "Dave Who?" Nady's numbers five games into the season are gaudy. .444/.524/1.111 is outstanding even this early. For the simple-arithmetic-impaired, that's an OPS of 1.635, which for those who don't pay attention to baseball statisics is damn good. Nevin, who had been struggling at home (1 for 10), put the Padres up for good in the fifth inning when he slammed the 13th pitch of the inning over the centerfield wall for a three-run homerun.