After the Padres were swept by the Cardinals in St Louis, it was easy to predict a bad week was in store for the Padres. They still had to go to Milwaukee for a four game series. The Brewers have a very good pitching staff. Fortunately the Padres do to. They took three out of four from the Brewers, and easily could have swept, save for one rough outing from closer Taylor Rogers.

It’s nice to think the Padres turned their road fortunes around because manager Bob Melvin is a steady hand and won’t let this team get to high or to low. And that may be true. But the reality is this starting pitching staff is mostly dominant. I’m not a big proponent of measuring a staff by Quality Starts, but holy shit sometimes the stat fits the narrative. The Padres lead the majors in Quality Starts and Joe Musgrove, Sean Manaea and Yu Darvish are all in the top ten. The Padres rarely get blown out because their starters constantly keep them in games. All four starters against the Brewers were excellent. Even Mike Clevinger, who went 3IP due to a pitch limit in his return from the IL had phenomenal stuff. He did have some issue with command of it, but it was fine considering he returned without a rehab start in the minors.

The Padres are a little over a week into their 31 games in 31 days stretch of their schedule. They are 5-5 so far and come home for seven games against the Mets and Rockies. They have played 54 games, a full third of the season (there is no one-third pole in horse racing so I don’t know what to call this posting) and sit 33-21. Their road record sparkles at 20-11, while they are only 13-10 at home. They are keeping pace with the dodgers, down by 2 games, and the Giants, up by 3-1/2. Hopefully some home cooking can have the Pads extend this little three game winning streak out a bit and get them atop the NL West before my next post.

The offense has been mid most of the season, but recent games have shown a resurgence by some key players. Trent Grisham has been swinging much better and has a nice .286/.429/.607 slash line over the last ten games. Jake Cronenworth also seems to have found his sweet swing and sports a .244/.295/.439 line over the same period. Jake’s isn’t great, but the slugging increase is positive. The Padres can lean on Manny Machado all season, but a few more guys helping him carry the load will be welcomed. Hos slashed .171/.216/.211 over the same timeframe. Lol, Hot Hos Opt Out Szn is over. Luke Voit with a slash of .293/.341/.463 in the last 10 games is a huge addition. Maybe he can get some more playing time at first base. The other guy looks terrible. Thank you.