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Since my last update on Cameron things have improved for him...go Mike....
Cam now has 15 home runs and 44 RBI, .351 OBP,.484 SLG AND .251AVG....
From padres.com
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LOS ANGELES -- The Mike Cameron Show continued on Tuesday night in all its blazing glory. The Padres' center fielder did everything but pitch, and he probably could have done that judging by the strike he threw to Mike Piazza.
Cameron cracked a two-run homer and threw out a runner at home in a critical moment, carrying the Padres to a 7-3 victory over the Dodgers in front of 51,334 at Dodger Stadium.
Adrian Gonzalez, extending his hitting streak to 16 games, drove in three runs with a pair of doubles to join Cameron in the assault.
With its third win in a row, San Diego leads the National League West by 1 1/2 games over second-place Arizona, with San Francisco falling to third, two games off the pace. Los Angeles is 6 1/2 games out of first, its worst position all season, after losing for the seventh straight time and 12th in 13 games.
Since June 1, when he was finally recovered from a strained oblique that cost him the season's first three weeks, Cameron leads the Major Leagues with 31 extra-base hits -- one more than Seattle's Adrian Beltre, and two more than Toronto's Vernon Wells and Washington's Alfonso Soriano.
It's doubtful, in teammates' minds, that there has been a better player in the game over the past two months than the man who came from the New York Mets over the winter for Xavier Nady.
"Cam is hitting that point in his career where everything is coming together," said teammate Eric Young, "and he really knows the type of player he is and what he's capable of doing.
"Take away that first month when he came back and was just getting in the flow, and we'd be talking Player of the Week awards and MVP consideration.
"That oblique takes a while to heal. You could see in Spring Training that Cammy was going to have a strong year. He's going to be one of the guys to carry us in the second half."
The Padres were reeling with losses in the first three games of the series in San Francisco when Cameron tripled leading off Sunday's 12th inning -- after Terrmel Sledge's homer had forced extra innings -- and scored on Young's sacrifice fly for the game-winner.
Heading south, Cameron powered a 441-foot monster blast worth three runs in Monday night's win at Dodger Stadium, and he launched his third homer in four days and 15th of the season against southpaw Mark Hendrickson (4-12) to stake Chan Ho Park to a 2-0 lead in Tuesday night's third inning after Young had been hit by a pitch.
"I've been squaring it up a whole lot lately," Cameron said, grinning. "If it wasn't for [Giants center fielder Steve] Finley, I'd have some more [extra-base hits]."
The contribution Cameron felt best about Tuesday night was his one-hop strike to Piazza to cut down Toby Hall trying to score the potential tying run in the sixth from second base on J.D. Drew's line-drive single.
As he does so effortlessly, Cameron got quickly to the ball and launched it in a place where Piazza could make a clean tag.
"Any time you can make a play to stop the other team's offensive momentum," Cameron said, "that kind of sets them back a little bit. It allowed us to come back and get some more runs."
Park (7-6) went six innings, giving up three runs on 10 hits, to secure the win against his original team. Alan Embree, Cla Meredith and Jon Adkins were perfect in the seventh, eighth and ninth, giving Scott Linebrink and Trevor Hoffman the night off. Meredith has retired the last 16 hitters he's faced.
"Honestly, I didn't realize they had that many hits," Park said. "I made good pitches, and they got some broken-bat hits and ground balls in holes. But I kept throwing good pitches, down in the strike zone, and got ground balls. That was good. It helps a lot to get ground balls like that."
It also helps to get a throw like the one uncorked by Cameron, Park added.
"That was big-time," Park said. "Cameron was the MVP the last couple of games."
After Cameron's two-run blast against Hendrickson, Kenny Lofton halved the deficit in the fourth with his first homer of the season. The Dodgers drew even in the fifth on Rafael Furcal's RBI double.
Doubles by Piazza -- scoring his 1,000th career run -- and Gonzalez put the Padres back in front in the sixth, and Park dumped a two-out hit into right field to score Gonzalez for a 4-2 lead. That was big when the Dodgers added a run in the sixth on three singles before Cameron shot down Hall.
Gonzalez's second double -- after Rob Bowen singled and Khalil Greene was hit by a pitch -- made it 6-3 in the ninth against Danys Baez, and Josh Barfield delivered another run with a scoring fly ball.
The NL Player of the Week, Gonzalez continued to sizzle, batting .429 during his 16-game streak to reach .302 on the season. His partner on the right side of the infield, Barfield, also is afire, leading the Major Leagues in hits in July with 35 to hike his average to .299.
Another plus was provided by third baseman Mark Bellhorn, who started a double play behind Park and stroked three hits.
"Chan Ho did a great job, the bullpen did a great job, and Cameron saved us with the throw and had a great all-around game," manager Bruce Bochy said. "A lot of good things happened tonight."
Lyle Spencer is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
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Great to see Cameron doing well.
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