David Eckstein News

Adrian Gonzalez has certainly made plenty of noise with his bat in four seasons with the Padres.

San Diego rookie shortstop Everth Cabrera had more errors than any other National League shortstop, though the general consensus among teammates, coaches and even opposing managers was that he saved the team far more runs than he cost it.

As I was writing another column of the best World Series match ups of the last 30 years, I realized how many stinkers there have been recently.

It's October, the baseball playoffs are underway, and Cards fans are already contemplating suicide.

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The talk for much of the last two months is that the Padres are not that far off from contending again in the National League West.

There is hope in San Diego, something that wasn't apparent a year ago at this time, on the heels of a 99-loss season.

October 3, 2009, 5:28 p.m. GIANTS at PADRES 7:05 p.m. / Game 2 of 3/strong> TV: 4 San Diego > Radio: 1090-AM, 1700-AM; 860-AM The focus Saturday at Petco Park was not on the seasona s penultimate game.

It's meant as no slight at all when general manager Kevin Towers refers to his team as "his gutty little Padres," though for these past two days they've looked and played more like the one thing they truly aspire to be -- contenders.

September 20, 2009, 9:13 a.m. TODAYa S MATCHUP PADRES at PIRATES 10:35 A.M., GAME 3 of 4 TV: 4 San Diego Radio: 1090-AM, 1700-AM; 860-AM People dona t buy tickets or tune in to watch defense in baseball, but that may be whata s best about this four-game series between the Padres and Pirates.

Spoiler. It's a term that's overused this time of year, when a team playing out the string faces a contender.

Rockies closer Huston Street returned to action on Tuesday night, pitching a scoreless two-thirds of an inning in the seventh and protecting a two-run Rockies lead over the Padres.

Karen Price can be reached via e-mail or at 412-320-7980. Great Race videos Ways to get us Left fielder Lastings Milledge made what he called the catch of his career in the sixth to end the inning with two runners on base for the San Diego Padres.

The scoreboard at PNC Park indicated that if you missed the lengthy first inning on Friday night, you essentially missed everything.

The question didn't stump Bud Black, but it certainly appeared that way. The truth is the Padres manager only fell silent on Wednesday because he was trying to calculate in his head the combined distance of Luis Durango's first three Major League hits.

For Dodgers players and coaches, it was a pleasing--if not heartwarming--sight to watch Hiroki Kuroda throw pitches from a major-league mound again.

Giants speedster Eugenio Velez reacts after being caught stealing to end the fourht inning.

More than 120 kids with dreams of playing in the big leagues headed to the Washington Nationals Park Saturday morning for the team's youth clinic.

Their own game over and their own plane waiting for the trip home, the Padres ate and dressed slowly, watching the Little League World Series final and visibly pulling for the kids from Chula Vista.

At an early age, Rick and David Eckstein were aware of their current - or future - limitations.