The San Diego Padres have had their fair share of troubles this season. Despite a tough start to the year, the club had a miraculous turnaround, finding ways to win games they had no business winning. But, since then, it’s been rough. The offense has been stale for the entire month of June, with the Padres winning just seven games of 18 played. The Friars have only won two series despite having a rubber game in four of six series.
Somehow, the club has managed to stay above .500, with a 39-37 record entering play on Monday. That said, San Diego is outside of the current playoff picture after spending most of the season in the first NL Wild Card spot. They’ll need to battle back to regain position, and it will be tough to do in the few weeks left before the All-Star break. If they still hope to win the division, they’ll need to make it through this stretch of games.
Padres Rediscovering Their Offense
A Ridiculously Tough Schedule
In the three weeks before the All-Star Game, the Padres have 20 games (six series) remaining. 11 of those games are against divisional opponents. The Friars play seven games against the Los Angeles Dodgers, and four versus the Arizona Diamondbacks. Not only that, San Diego plays the surging Atlanta Braves this week and the Chicago Cubs next week. They end the stretch playing the worst team of the group, the Toronto Blue Jays, though the Jays are by no means a bad team.
Apart from Toronto, all five teams currently boast winning records. If there’s any hope, it’s that they’ve all cooled off lately. None of them have a record better than 6-4 in their last 10 games. Chief of these is the Braves, who have gone 3-7. The club was just swept by the San Francisco Giants and lost to the New York Mets last week. San Diego could exploit the recent woes of the Atlanta pitching staff.
These few weeks could easily turn out to be catastrophic for the club. All of these organizations figure to be inside of the playoff picture at the end of the year. How the Padres play against these teams now may serve as an indication of how they would perform in the postseason.
San Diego’s Lineup Starting to Surge
The Friars have endured some brutal stretches in which their offense has struggled to scratch a single run across the board. It’s gotten to the point that a one-run deficit makes it feel like the game is already over for San Diego. The club has scored just under four runs a game and 11.5 runs per series in the month of June. The problem is that the Friars can’t seem to string their hits together.
They managed to do so against the Texas Rangers this weekend, slugging out 16 runs against the club. San Diego also score 17 runs against the Baltimore Orioles two weeks ago. But, in between, the Friars played the St. Louis Cardinals and struggled in a major way, scoring just eight runs (six of which came in the series finale alone). In the Padres’ series against Baltimore and Texas, the group slugged out 19 extra-base hits, 10 of which were home runs. San Diego will need that slug to best Atlanta and the teams that follow.
Stars Searching for Consistency at the Plate
The problem for the Friars’ offense this season has been a lack of production from their stars. That hasn’t been the case lately. Manny Machado, Jackson Merrill and Fernando Tatis Jr. boast a combined .289 batting average over the last seven games. That’s only dragged down by Machado, who has a .192 average in that timeframe. Between Merrill and Tatis, the combined average increases to a ridiculous .333, with the two going 19-for-57.
The trio has knocked in 14 runs for the club, with Machado leading the charge (six RBIs). That’s been his only redeeming quality as of late. Despite an inability to bat for average, he’s had some timely hits that have won the Padres games. In Game 2 against the Rangers, Machado scored five of San Diego’s six runs, capped by a three-run homer in the tenth to win the Friars the game. If the big three can keep things up alongside the contributions of the likes of Ty France and spark plug Samad Taylor, the club could actually have a shot at winning some of their upcoming series.
Main Photo: Kelley L. Cox- Imagn Images
