The San Diego Padres took two-of-three from the worst team in baseball then lost two-of-three against the team chasing them for the second Wild Card spot. Then went .500 for the second time in the last four weeks and only have one winning week of the last four.
First, it was the offense slumping, then the starting pitchers swooning, and now it’s a bit of both offensive and pitching issues. The Padres are hitting .300 as a team for the past six games. They have 10 home runs over that span and 31 RBI.
Manny Machado hit his second grand slam of the season against the Mets on Wednesday, but they still lost three of their six games. It’s feast or famine with the offense. Lots of hits and runs scored one game (Wednesday) and then struggling against a rookie pitcher with an ERA over 6.00 another day (Thursday).
Pitching issues
Lefty JP Sears started for the Padres against the Rockies on Sept. 12, going 4.1 innings and allowing four runs. The bullpen came in and held the Rockies there, but the offense only scratched out five hits and two runs. Dylan Cease had a good start with six innings and only one run, while Yu Darvish completed five innings and allowed three runs.
Michael King’s start against the Mets was a disaster, allowing 10hits and eight runs in three innings, while Nick Pivetta and Randy Vasquez were both pulled early in their starts to capitalize on a rested bullpen. The bullpen came through for Pivetta, not so much for Vasquez.
The Padres team ERA over the past week was 5.65, 23rd in the league.
Padres reliever Jeremiah Estrada, who has been lights-out for most of the season, has hit a rough patch. He appeared in two games over the last week and allowed two runs in 1.1 innings. In the last 15 days, he has five innings in six appearances, allowing seven hits and six runs.
Adrian Morejon, who has carriedthe lowest ERA for the relievers for most of the season, pitched in two games for two innings total and gave up three hits and two runs.
The issue could be fatigue as both Morejon and Estrada have pitched in 68 innings this season. A normal reliever’s workload is 65-75 innings for a season. The organization would probably not recognize the current state as overuse. The Padres pitching plan has been judicious through the season with monitoring workloads for all their pitchers.
It remains to be seen if the pitchers can pull themselves together for the last week-plus of the season.
Offensive pluses and minuses
Manny Machado has broken out of his long slump. Over the past week he is hitting .438 with a 1.284 OPS. He has two homers and seven RBI. Fernando Tatis Jr. has a .500 average for the past week with a 1.258 OPS. He has a home run and an RBI. Jackson Merrill is back to being Jackson Merrill with a .318 average and 1.091 OPS. He has three home runs and five RBI for the past week.
Gavin Sheets and Ryan O’Hearn struggled this past week, but the rest of the starters have a .300 or better average. But hitting in clutch situations, with runners in scoring position, continues to be a big problem. Putting it all together is where they seem to fall short. There are only nine games left for them to figure this out.
The playoff picture
With the Los Angeles Dodgers winning, while the Padres tread water, the Friars are now three games back of LA. They have fallen to five games behind the Chicago Cubs for the top Wild Card spot. The New York Mets now trail the Padres by four games for the second spot. The Friars are running out of time to make up ground on the teams they are chasing.
While it would take a major disaster for the team to not be playing in the first round of the playoffs (the magic number is four), going deep into the contest is the goal. Hitting on all cylinders needs to be what they are working toward for the next week.
Roster changes and injury updates
JP Sears was brought up from El Paso on Sept. 12 to start for the Padres and reliever David Morgan was placed on the IL with shoulder soreness.
The day after his start, Sears was sent back to El Paso and reliever Bradgley Rodriguez was promoted to SD. Sears has subsequently made a start for the Chihuahuas and is tuned for another cameo with the Friars.
Shortstop Xander Bogaerts went to Arizona when the Padres left for their road trip. He has been working on increasing his workload, while doing all baseball activities (per manager Mike Shildt) and has recovered well at each stage. No timeline has been given for his return.
Joe Musgrove continues his rehab from Tommy John surgery and has made no secret of the fact he would like to join the bullpen for the playoffs. No update has been given on if this is a possibility.
David Morgan is also in Arizona, working his way back from shoulder soreness after getting a rest. No timeline has been given for his return.
LHP Nestor Cortes threw a bullpen on Thursday. There has been no timeline given for his return.
- This report was completed prior to Friday’s game in Chicago.
