And the streak ends, just like that, at home, against a good team. We scored an early run in the first, and they shut us down the rest of the way. We just can't generate any consistent offense at home.
To me, Blake Snell is the weak link in this rotation. I might have been the only Padres fan who was not ecstatic when we landed him from the Rays. Darvish, yes. Proven starter, gives you innings, will put up plenty of goose eggs. Snell won the Cy Young Award in 2018 with a 21-5 record. What I didn't like about that record was that he pitched 180 innings. That's a lot of innings where you need your bullpen, and that pattern has continued here in San Diego, only with more predictable results. Translated, that means L's and a higher ERA. In SD, he's been average, at best.
Snell has a wide arsenal of pitches, yet he can't seem to get anybody out. Last night, it took him ten, eight and nine pitches to get three batters out. Snell usually racks up 90-100 pitches by the fourth or fifth inning, and then it's crossed fingers that the bullpen can hold on to the lead, provided he ever had it to begin with. I am certain Snell can win ballgames again, only I don't think he's a good fit in SD. Perhaps a trade back to Tampa, where he, according to his own admission, never wanted to leave in the first place? Snell is the one pitcher on this staff that gives me the fits.
He reminds me of a former Padre from the 90s, a guy named Sterling Hitchcock. Same pattern: throw a lot of pitches, put your teammates to sleep, out by the sixth or seventh inning. I recall him winning the NLCS MVP in '98, if I'm not mistaken, and he gave us some quality innings. That said, he, too, relied heavily on our bullpen, which managed to bail him out time and again. We rewarded him with a six million dollar a year contract, an enormous amount of bread at that time. He had one semi decent season in '99. and it all went downhill from there.
We also have too many batters who are not hitting. Grisham looks lost at the plate, as does Cron Zone. Nola, usually a reliable hitter, is at .216. And I don't expect any of those averages to go up anytime soon, at least not at Petco. We have a pitching staff that will keep us in games, but chances are we will not win too many games scoring one or two runs. It can't be just Manny and Hos carrying us.
Profar's double play grounder in the first was huge, a real rally killer. Instead, we only got one run out of the deal, and that was all she wrote the rest of the way. Profar is not a cleanup hitter (or even a number three!), and frankly, he's lucky he's in the starting lineup at all. If you're in the batting order between Manny and Hos, I'm guessing you'll get some hittable pitches. And Profar is simply not delivering. We have two players hitting at over .300, one (Myers) at .241, and the rest at .220 or worse. Not good enough, guys.
13 games above .500, one and a half behind the Dodgers. Rubber game today.
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