With the glitz, glamour and confetti finally clearing it’s way from Target field and the All Star game red carpet completely rolled up and tucked away nicely for next year, we can all start grabbing our anxiety medication because we have reached the second half of America’s favorite past time. This is the point in every baseball fans life where the hopeful “there’s still a lot of baseball left, don’t worry, guys” has lost all it’s meaning, where every fan starts pulling out the good luck charms and stops washing those good luck undies in hopes that this good ju-ju will somehow make it’s way up to the baseball gods. There are some clubs such as the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Washington Nationals fighting to stay atop the National League standings and there are some clubs like the Colorado Rockies, that the baseball gods just plum forgot about this season, but there is one team that won’t be one of the forgotten ones and that’s the San Diego Padres.
The second half of the season has risen something out of the Padres, especially for their left fielder Seth Smith who is finally starting to heat up. Batting .291 with 12 home runs, Smith is helping his team try and snag a wild card spot for the playoffs. The Cuban rookie, Odrisamer Despaigne is a big reason why the Padres have the best ERA in the National League. With an allowance of 3.36 runs per game is easily a club record, if it can be maintained. Yes, the San Diego Padres are currently ranked third in the National League west and 11.5 games behind first place, they still aren’t going down without a fight.
After being no hit for the second straight year in a row, by the exact same team and by the exact same San Francisco Giants pitcher, Tim Lincecum, the Padres seemed to have been down for the count, but that was the first part of the season. Five teams separate the San Diego Padres from the St. Louis Cardinals for one of the wild card spots. Can The San Diego Padres reach that coveted wild card spot after losing Everth Cabrera with another hamstring strain to the disabled list? Will Yonder Alonso make it back to the lineup after his forearm strain took him out of the final game in the series with the St. Louis Cardinals. One could only hope that this is a tale that Drake wrote about, “we started from the bottom now we’re here”. Keep an out for those San Diego Padres, they might just steal that wild card spot right from under your favorite teams nose.
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