Third baseman Sean Burroughs rejoined

the San Diego Padres for the stretch drive on Wednesday, 5?

weeks after being demoted to Triple-A to try to regain his

batting stroke.

 

Burroughs, whose average had dropped to .255 when he was

sent down to the Portland Beavers on July 23, will be used as

a pinch-hitter and to give third baseman Joe Randa an

occasional rest.

 

??I'm excited. There's no guarantees or anything,'' said

Burroughs, the Padres' first-round draft pick in 1998.

 

Burroughs caught a 6:30 a.m. flight from Tucson, where the

Beavers played Tuesday night.

 

??I couldn't get here quick enough,'' he said before the

Padres played an afternoon game against Arizona.

 

To make room for Burroughs, right-handed reliever Paul

Quantrill was designated for assignment.

 

Burroughs batted .290 with three home runs, eight doubles,

14 RBIs and 21 runs in 32 games with the Beavers.

 

With the Padres, he had just one homer and 15 RBIs in 78

games.

 

??It's always hard to leave a team, especially when we

were doing so well,'' he said. ??But you can read the fine

print sometimes. You can kind of feel stuff as an inevitable

thing. It was definitely the best decision the Padres could

have made. I had a great time.''

 

Burroughs was sent down the same day the Padres acquired

Randa from the Cincinnati Reds for two minor leaguers. Randa

has hit .242 with three homers and 10 RBIs with San Diego. He

hit a go-ahead homer in Tuesday night's 7-5 win over Arizona,

which gave the Padres a 5?-game lead in the NL West and

pulled them to one game below .500 at 65-66.

 

The Padres tried to trade Burroughs earlier this season,

but ended up optioning him to Triple-A. Burroughs, the son

the son of former AL MVP Jeff Burroughs, has shown a

remarkable lack of power, hitting only 11 homers since he

made his big league debut in 2002.

 

Burroughs said Beavers hitting coach Jose Castro and

roving minor league hitting instructor Rob Deer helped him

work on his swing.

 

??It's the best I've felt in years,'' said the left-handed

Burroughs, who worked on pulling the ball. ??It's a

confidence thing. It carries over day in and day out. It was

probably the hardest .295 I've hit. I probably only had

three, four hits to left the whole time I was down there,

which I'm excited about.''

 

Quantrill made 22 appearances, going 1-1 with a 3.41 ERA.

He was acquired on July 2 from the New York Yankees, who had

demoted him two days earlier, in exchange for struggling

pitchers Darrell May and Tim Redding.

 

Source: AP

Quantrill would be a great pickup for us. He'd do well here I think.