San Diego Padres Unphased By Media Bias

San Diego has always been known as "that sleepy little city" in Southern California.

As a matter of fact, if you ever turn on the local news in Los Angeles they always say they cover "Southern California sports," except they always fail to mention the Chargers and Padres in their coverage. 

When you watch a major sports network like ESPN, the Padres may get a 10 second recap of their game that night.

So it came as no surprise when ESPN's John Kruk, when asked about the Padres 6-2 start to the 2009 season he responded "they're playing real well, but I don't believe in them."  That made Padres' closer Heath Bell come unglued, although he's well known for being blunt in his opinions as it is.  Bell took a shot of his own at ESPN, “I truly believe ESPN only cares about promoting the Red Sox and Yankees and Mets – and nobody else.”  

Trust me when I tell you neither ESPN, nor John Kruk, has the stones to respond to Bell because they know he's right.

The Padres don't need the media to play their game, they don't need the media to hype them up every night, they don't need the media to pick them to win the World Series every single year like they do with the New York Yankees. 

They will play in their "sleepy little city," they want to continue to shock people, continue to pick up wins and continue to play their style of baseball.  They do what works for them, unphased at what everyone else thinks of them.

They are a team of relative unknowns.  They have a roster full of names like Luke Gregerson, Walter Silva, Jody Gerut, Shawn Hill, Cla Meredith and Edwin Moreno, but it's how they like it. 

They have great clubhouse chemistry, they work together as a ballclub and they've been playing like that since their 4-3 come from behind victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers last week—a game that has sparked their current five game winning streak.

They've been swinging the bats and hitting better than Padre fans have seen in previous years, able to move runners over with a simple sacrifice bunt, able to bring in runners in scoring position and score crucial runs when they're needed. 

But not only has the offense been there for the San Diego Padres, but their pitching has been as well.

Jake Peavy and Chris Young have been up to their old tricks, shutting down opposing hitters and being their old dominant selves.  After Peavy and Young, there was to be an expected dropoff—except that dropoff never really happened. 

Walter Silva, Kevin Correia and Shawn Hill have really held their own, although Silva struggled in his last outing against the New York Mets in the Padres' 6-5 win.  Correia received a no decision in the Padres come from behind 4-3 win over the Dodgers and former Washington National Shawn Hill was impressive in his five innings of work in a 7-3 win over the San Francisco Giants.

The most impressive part of the San Diego Padres has been their bullpen.  They have combined to give up just three runs in 23 combined innings pitched, good for a 1.42 ERA. 

Closer Heath Bell, a guy who people had a lot of questions about as far as would he have the closers mentality or would he be able to take over where long time closer Trevor Hoffman left off, has exceeded expectations.  Bell has converted four saves in all four opportunities, giving up just one hit in those four appearances.

The two most impressive out of the bullpen have been right-handers Edwin Moreno and Luke Gregerson.  Moreno and Gregerson have not disappointed manager Bud Black when either of them have been called out of the bullpen.  They have yet to give up a run in their combined 10 innings of work, allowing just seven hits between the two of them.  

Having guys like that out of your bullpen gives your starters so much more confidence to turn the ball over, knowing the lead you handed over is going to be safe.  It also gives closer Heath Bell the confidence to go out and nail down those saves, not wanting to let his team down by giving a lead his team worked so hard to obtain. 

As the San Diego Padres get ready for game two of their three game series against the New York Mets, they know the media's eyes won't be on them, they know they'll be just as unknown as they were yesterday, but they know they can keep winning, they know they can defy the odds.  The way this team is playing right now, it's not so far fetched that a run at the NL West crown may not be so unreachable after all.