It's called, "pending free agency."

A scout who attended Wednesday night's Dodgers-Padres game at Petco Park clocked Ramirez from home to first in 4.48 seconds — a major improvement on his running times with the Red Sox.

"It was the fastest I've ever gotten him," the scout said. "I couldn't believe it."

Equally incredible were the two opposite-field home runs that Ramirez crushed at Petco, an extreme pitcher's park.

"He stayed back on (Shawn) Estes' curveball as good as I've seen a hitter stay on a ball in a long, long time — and he drove it 420 feet," the scout said. "All I could think was, 'Phil Nevin, where are you now?'"

Nevin frequently complained about the dimensions at Petco, and several current Padres hitters still consider the park a problem. Ramirez made the place look like a Little League field.

"He's like Bonds," Padres general manager Kevin Towers said, referring to his team's former nemesis. "He's got some people around him, but he has that Bonds effect.

"He's one of those guys, you're always looking for him. It seems like he's on deck, on base, at the plate almost every inning. And with one swing, he can change the game."

Padres' Towers: 'We are all to blame'

Towers maintains that he will not decide on manager Bud Black's future until after he meets with him near the end of the season.

The Padres could retain Black, who is signed through 2009, and dismiss some of his coaches instead.

"We all are to blame," Towers said. "The entire organization. It's the coaching staff. It's the front office. It's the players. We all should be held accountable.

"We have to look as a front office at what the mistakes were, where the mistakes were. Going forward, do we have the right people, the right players, the right coaches?

"That's the question that (club president) Sandy (Alderson) and I need to ask. We want to talk to Buddy and see where he thinks our pluses are, where things went wrong.

"We talk on a daily basis as a front office. Sometimes it's important to hear from your manager at the end of the year and see how he evaluates things."

Sweet, relentless Lou

Lou Piniella wants to win so badly, he occasionally drives his players crazy, his bosses crazy, everyone crazy. But you know what? Piniella was right to rip into the Cubs on Tuesday night after they lost for the eighth time in nine games.

Complacency is often an issue in September for likely postseason qualifiers, and the Cubs aren't exactly known for tearing it up in October. So, when Piniella says, "You've got to get your damn shirts rolled up and kick somebody's ass," who can argue?