Padres in town to get crushed by the Nationals! UGH!

I had the joy of going to Nationals Park on Friday to watch a rare Padres victory against, as we've learned by the end of the series, the vastly superior Washington Nationals. It was the first time I've been able to go early to a game and catch batting practice. Luckily, with Padres fans being so sparse around these parts, it was relatively easy to meet the players. Jake Peavy, Heath Bell, David Eckstein and Mat Latos in particular were very accessible. Peavy spent about 10 minutes meeting fans. I was lucky enough to get this:

Mat Latos, who was starting that night, was also friendly, although he told us that he "doesn't do pictures". He does do autographs though. Check out this crappy autograph I got on a too-glossy card:













Anyways, the Padres totally destroyed the Nationals. The Nationals blundered their way to 4 errors, and it felt great that the last 7 games I've seen the Padres play in DC, they've won. Unfortunately they got smoked Saturday, and despite a heroic Kyle Blanks bomb, lost in extra innings to... awful Austin Kearns.

Thanks to all the Padres that were nice enough to chat with fans and sign autographs (Peavy, Latos, Brian Giles (who was looking awfully tan), David Eckstein, Will Venable, Mike Adams, Heath Bell, Chase Headley, and saw Kouz signing for some servicemen).

Here are some more photos of the pregame: