Phillies 8, Padres 5

Mission failed, Compadres. 

With today's loss we dropped three of four to the Phillies at home. We built a 5-1 lead that the bullpen couldn't hold. It happens. If Darvish gives you a quality start and the offense gives you five runs, you have to like your chances. The problem is, we sent our three best pitchers against them, they lost Harper, and they still prevailed in the final two games. Not us. Take a vital player out, and we will stink up the joint quicker than a fish left in a bin for two days. The Phillies are just a bad matchup for us, always have been.

In Game 2 of the series, McKenzie Gore redeemed himself somewhat. Five shutout innings, but almost 100 pitches. With five days rest, he can and will do better. Snell lost Game 4 after giving up four, all earned, plus six hits on 94 pitches in 5 2/3. Again, not bad, but not good enough. The first four innings were goose eggs before the decisive fifth inning, where the Phillies tagged him for three. Of course he also broke Harper's thumb, which is remarkable in itself. 

Today, we only had five hits, and we were shut out over the final 6 1/3 innings on one hit. That Phillies bullpen is nothing special, but they were good enough for us. Again, guys: protect your home turf. Too many times, that hasn't happened for us, with the result that we send the Cubs', Brewers', and Dodgers' fans home happy, now add the Phillies. 

The Diamondbacks on the road are next, so they still have a bone or six to pick with us. That's followed by the Dodgers. Mission in Arizona: get at least a split. Right before the All-Star break, we'll have four games at home against the Giants followed by four on the road at Colorado. That should be telling, right there. Let's not forget that division games are still our priority, every last one of them. 

Phillies, 6, Padres 2

To absolutely nobody's surprise, the Phillies rolled in and ended Musgrove's perfect season. C'mon, men. Defend your turf. Too many times, this has been an issue this season. If they already beat our ace in Game 1, what do you think will happen going forward? Think they're afraid of whoever we throw at them in the next three games? Anyway, that's first place gone.

On Jake Cronenworth bobblehead doll night, the skipper sat...Jake Cronenworth. I don't know, skip. That's the guy the fans have come to see tonight. Add to that that we are without our top three players on offense, and there's really little hope. After two losses against the Rockies, we need a big game from McKenzie Gore. This is still June, kid. The real pressure comes later in September and October. For now, we need to put up innings and make the postseason, above anything else. Five days rest, you can do it. 

We gave Musgrove an early lead on a dinger by Hos, but giving him just one run might be a little too much to ask. Two run dinger by Schwarber, three run shot by Realmuto, and that was all she wrote. Their guy, Ranger Suarez, who has won 20 career games, is now Ranger Maddux. 7 1/3 innings, two runs, and really just let our guys get themselves out. The hitting is not timely...we get runners on, but can't get them in. We left 16 on base, they left four. Our AAA (Azocar, Abrams, Alcantara) lower third of the lineup went a combined 0-for-10 and will probably get a ticket back to AAA, should they continue to produce goose eggs. Abrams, especially, just hasn't shown me anything. Maybe it's the Major Leagues getting to him, but I would hate to see him wind up with another team and be another good prospect that got away. The fact is, this lineup scares absolutely no-one. Of course, Brad Hand pitched an inning against us to close it out. 

40,355 at the ballpark, and an absolute dud. Musgrove had one strikeout (Harper, of all people), but really didn't have his breaking pitches working. He hung that one to Realmuto, and he banged it. No bite at all today. Here it's important how Musgrove will respond. Let's not kid ourselves: this is a contract year for Joe, so he will want to put himself in the best payoff position. We got Nola facing us tonight, so losing the first game was not good. Did I tell you I would dread this series? I always dread playing the Phillies.

Padres 10, Diamondbacks 4

It just goes to show that you never know what can happen in baseball. Ripped by the Rockies with Manny, take three from the Diamondbacks without him. Strange days are these.

We got on Bum early and often in the first inning, and with the type of rally I have been sorely missing this year. Single, single, single, single, with two outs, just dink the pitcher to death until you score four. That first inning made all the difference. I have always respected Bum. I have never seen a gutsier playoff performance in my life when he shut down the Royals in the 2014 World Series. It was vintage Bum, who pitched inning after inning, including his "bullpen" performance of five innings in the final game to secure the series for them. I think he's a much better pitcher than he's given credit for. He's a Tar Heel, born and raised, and my father-in-law knows his dad, who still umpires high school games. 

Clevinger, on the other hand, allowed four hits and one run in four innings, but that line hides the fact that he was all over the place. Location was off, he threw way too many pitches, 81 in all. The Diamondbacks lineup is not much to look at, they have six batters hitting .220 or worse with three of them below the Mendoza Line. There is no doubt that Clevinger can be a good, consistent, productive pitcher, but I have yet to see it. The best I saw him was against the Phillies, when he went for five shutout innings and gave up just one hit. I have never seen him go above five, so I guess they are still building up his arm. It looks like we are going with a six-man rotation, with Martinez and Clevinger taking turns with the start, while the other is relegated to long relief. Hey, that'll work. Nick Martinez came out of the bullpen and notched a save, giving up two runs in 3 2/3 innings of work, with only one run earned. I'll take it, and the bullpen will enjoy the day off, I'm sure, after working overtime the night before. 

Profar had a 4-for-4 night from the leadoff spot, while we received two hits apiece from Grish and Nola, plus three hits from Azocar, who missed the cycle by a dinger. CJ Abrams, our star prospect from El Paso, just can't seem to hit major league pitching...yet. What a weapon he would be if he could get going.

The Phillies next, and they will be pissed off after getting swept by the Rangers. We need at least a split against those guys. Dodgers win, so we're still tied for first.

Padres 3, Diamondbacks 2 (11)

Let's not kid ourselves, Compadres. With Manny out, we are not better on offense. The ceiling for run production per game stands at three or four, which is really what it was while Manny was playing. Having an all-around great player like Manny helps and will at least make the pitchers and catchers allot more time to their meetings. The pitchers now prefer not to face Manny (with the exception of Madison Bumgarner, today's tarter for the snakes), but it would be folly to underestimate the lineup we have.

It seems we need to win games on a hero-by-committee basis. Cron and Grish two days ago. Hos hit an important dinger last night. We are not going to blow out teams, we are squeezing out wins. Like I said, I already dread playing the Phillies, who will have plenty of fans at these games. But in the meantime, I'm happy we didn't look past the Diamondbacks. We are snake-bitten, but it's by the Rockies, not Arizona. Mission accomplished, though. We won this series. Think there will be an encore against Bum? We'll see. Strangely enough, Bum has always looked rather average against us, which I am grateful for.

One thing I don't understand is how Hosmer is just getting hammered by the fans on social media. Some fans are merciless with him. Has he underachieved since signing that big contract? Perhaps, but I still find him to a be a reliable veteran who helps us win ball games. He and Manny carried this team during the first two months of the season. Hos is a bit of a streaky hitter, lacks consistency at times, I know. But for now, he is an integral part of this team. We will need guys like him in a pennant race. He pulled off the nigh impossible with a 2015 Royals team, who might be the last small market team on earth to win a World Series...until we hopefully win it. A great underdog story. As for Hos, we still have him signed until 2026, and he is only 32. Let's get the most out of it. We need positive veteran leadership, and we can do a lot worse than him and Manny at the corners.

As for Clevinger, I was ecstatic when we acquired him a few years ago and devastated when he was injured. What will we get out of him every six days? As with Hos, what value can we get out of this relationship? I can't wait to find out. 

Padres 4, Diamondbacks 1

An update on Manny's status revealed an ankle sprain, so we are waiting to see whether he will have to hit the DL or not. Anybody who has had an ankle sprain, and I have had plenty of them, know those won't heal overnight. Reports say his ankle was black and blue, although that doesn't necessarily indicate how serious it is. Ankle sprains can put you out for anywhere from one week to one month, or even more. Rest is needed either way. I feel bad for Manny, because I have always considered him our most important player, even more so than Tatis. He has been our MVP this season, hands down. We need to look on the bright side: the injury is happening 68 games into the season. 

With Manny gone, we needed the other players to pick up the slack. After getting whipped by the Rockies, we needed to up our game. Darvish started the game, allowed a first inning run and threw something like 25 first inning pitches, in other words he was pulling a Blake Snell. He settled down nicely after that, pitching seven innings with four hits allowed, just the one run, and five strikeouts. The total pitch count in the end was 104...beautiful, I guess the extra day of rest does do our pitchers some good. Darvish is now at 7-3 and looking great. We'll go with Manaea tonight, so let's see what we can do for an encore. In the end, this team will rise and fall with our pitching staff.

With Manny gone, we had the usual suspects step in. A homer by Cron, a dinger by Grish. We only had four hits in total, but also five walks, two of them by Austin Nola. Kim had a clutch two-run single that gave us the lead in the second inning, one we would never relinquish. C'mon, guys, we can do it! Even with Manny and Tatis gone, there are plenty of gamers on this team. With the skipper on the COVID list, Ryan Flaherty is taking over nicely. If Ryan is ever going to be a manager himself, though, he will need to work on his public speaking skills. Poor guy looks like a deer in the headlights talking to those reporters, and actually still sounds like he's one of the players. 

A look at the standings: tied for first place, would you believe it, although we have played four more games than the Dodgers. After Arizona, we will play four more games at home with the Phillies, which I absolutely dread. Following the dismissal of their skipper, Joe Girardi, the Phillies have played themselves right back into contention. But first things first: we need to take care of business against the Zonies. Need to win this series after getting squished by the Rockies.

Rockies 8, Padres 3

Easily the worst series of the season, and let's hope we have jettisoned most of the suck now before we further along in the season. 

Maybe a sweep at the hands of the Rockies, the last-place team in our division, will convince our guys that Denver has a major league team. That's five straight L's against them, for those of you who are counting. In this series, we scored four, four, and three runs, all at Coors Field, with a DH. Ouch.

We made another average pitcher, this time Antonio Senzatela, look like Cy Young, while our Cy Young, Blake Snell, looked like one of the ball boys, and pitched no better. Snell started out with a bang, retiring the side on eight pitches. Could it be, I wondered? Has he finally learned something, like knowing what a batter will do with a ball when pitched at a certain location? Boy, wouldn't it be nice, as the Beach Boys used to sing. Well, it isn't. Snell threw 29 pitches the next inning and made his scheduled departure in the fifth inning. The line: 4 2/3 innings, five hits, five runs, four walks. For the first time this season, we might just have a starter with an ERA higher than their guy. Senzatela, was nothing special, but we built him up. I think we should trade Snell, provided we could get something for him in return. He and the Padres just bring out the worst in each other. Maybe we can trade him to his hometown Mariners. He is doing us absolutely no good here.

It gets worse, though. We lost Manny in the first inning as he ran to first base. Ankle injury, we replaced him with Segio Alcantara, just another out machine usually sitting on the bench. Replacing Manny with Alcantara is like replacing a Harley with a trike, and the results agreed with me. Cron had two more hits, but with Manny not hitting behind him, all he did was raise his batting average. Luke hit a solo dinger to get us on the board, which we need to see more of. Other than that, we just sucked.

One thing we need to do is learn how to handle winning. Not just the losing, that's in the Padres DNA. Coming off that sweep in Chicago, we puffed our chests out again, and I knew we were going to get hammered for it in Colorado. Besides talent, this team lacks maturity. At least we have Bob Melvin. If anybody is going to coach these guys properly, then him. 

I dread the Padres without Manny.

Rockies 5, Padres 4

Again, not surprised. That formula was a recurring one before Chicago, and the Rockies are going to pick on us and laugh at us until we can prove that they, too, matter as an MLB team. We deserve it. That's four straight we've lost against them. Do you think they care they are in last place? As much as we care about first place, which we lost right back to the Dodgers.

All things considered, I'd still rather be a contender. I remember the many years during which we were the bottom dwellers. We'd have talent, sure, but like the Ozzie Smiths and Dave Winfields, we knew we would trade them or lose them to free agency. We would have that one consolation prize, like "Yeah, but we beat the Dodgers this year." That was our life for so long. Now the lesser teams are nipping at our heels. We need to prove that we can play with them. 

German Marquez, the Rockies' starter, began the evening with an ERA approaching seven, but did well against us, all things considered. We are absolutely snake bitten by starting pitchers this year. Maybe that's a conversation with the hitting coach. How do we adjust? What are the tendencies? The batting coach is simply not earning his corn. The hitters have thrashed some relatively weak pitching in Chicago, but we have some real problems adjusting to even average pitching. That's between the ears, that's the head coming in to play. 

Then there is the execution that is nowhere to be found. Why do our bats only come alive in the middle innings? And what if that is not an option against the supposedly bigger teams? The Rockies bring in another former starter, Jhoulys Chacin, remember him? This time around he had a seven plus ERA, which means he was perfectly fit to shut us down. In essence, the Rockies exchanged one 7+ ERA pitcher for another. Good enough for us. Two shutout innings, he must have felt he was reborn after facing us. 15 pitches in only two innings! In the end, it was their bullpen against ours in a dogfight. Guess who usually wins the dogfights? The dog, not the swan.

Martinez was okay, but the first inning runs hurt, because we aren't as good when we need to play catchup. Also, he was given the lead in the fifth and coughed it right back up in the bottom of their inning. Here, we are just playing to be as average as they are. This is not an insult, it's a fact. Believe me, I've been in the Rockies' shoes for way too may years.

You can't fault any pitcher throwing at mile high altitude. The hitters, yes. If you can't hit up here, then you know you have issues on offense. We are not a very cohesive unit, don't complement each other well. I see that Cron had two hits, as did Manny and Voit. Again, though, no sustained rallies. No moving the runners around, just a prolonged offensive slump. We either slump or get hot at the same time. Meanwhile, everybody is clamoring for Tatis to get back. Curse you, Tatis. You are the most talented player to ever don this jersey, but the commitment is not there, Mr. Easy Rider. But that's okay. All will be forgiven for a modest fee...in this case a World Series title.

We've got the same people on the Rockies picking on us, among them Blackmon and Cron (not our Cron). Cron is just killing us. Think we might have a hitter who can do the same in the Denver air? We can only wish for now. Manny, maybe, but he had a horrible at bat in the ninth with the tying and winning runs on base.

Mission failed at Coors. Think we can save one here? We've got another team, Arizona, coming to San Diego that I don't care about. Guys, do we care enough to play them? Spoiler alert: these games count as well.

Rockies 10, Padres 4

Two bits of bad news and one bit of good came out of last night's game. 

The bad news is we got our heads handed to us after we came out flat, as I expected. Call it another traveling day, exhaustion, acclimatization to the altitude, whatever. Rockies fans will simply call it another beatdown. Truly, we couldn't have come out more flatfooted. Kyle Freeland, again a starter hovering around a five ERA, beat us again by allowing four runs over seven innings. By the end of the fourth inning, it was already 6-0, Rocks, and they were cruising. We had a chance to knock out Freeland in the fifth, but he wiggled out of trouble, then pitched two more innings for good measure. 

The good news is we are still in first place. As to the second bit of bad news: we won't be if we don't accept the challenge a supposedly lesser team is posing here. I honestly can't stand playing the Rockies. There is nothing glorious about that franchise (which is what they would say about ours, arguably), nor do they have charisma or the pizzazz that the Cubs or the Dodgers or the Giants have. They will probably never win a World Series (again, something that has been the mantra about our franchise since we came into existence). Too many of their players were Coors phenomena, only to evaporate in thin air (pun intended) once they had to hit closer to sea level. I can't think of a single kid who is jumping up and down going, "Yay! We're going to see the ROCKIES today." The problem is, they are a pro team, and these games count just as much as the others. After the big city lights of Chicago, you now have the blah of the Rockies. That's why they are still beating us. The formula for playing less talented teams than you is not hard: match the intensity of the lesser foe, then wait for class to kick in. That's not happened. Not last year, and certainly not this year so far.

We lost that game in the first four innings, nothing but zeroes from our bats. Our liability is not coming out swinging, which only builds up their starter, whoever he is. We just thrashed a Cubs bullpen that might have been transformed, man for man, from their Iowa AAA club. We tried that again in Denver, this "oh, we'll be fine, just give us a few innings to catch our bearings." Doesn't work that way. And the Rockies will continue to own us until we adjust that attitude in their altitude. 

Of note was McKenzie Gore's poor performance. Gore has now lost to the Rockies twice, although anything is possible at Coors. That's twice in a row he's been taken to the shed. I'm not concerned here, but I am very much aware of what is going on here. Let's see how the kid can deal with that type of adversity going forward. 

The Braves had their 14-game winning streak finally snapped, by the Cubs, would you believe it. Nick Martinez is next. Can he pull one out for us at Coors? 

Padres 6, Cubs 4

We reached our goal for this series and then some. Meanwhile, the Rockies got swept by the Guardians at home. Do you wanna bet they will be more than ready when we come to town? But that's the NL West for you these days. For at least one day, we'll celebrate being in first place. I still want to win two out of three in Denver, because standards, you see.

In Chicago, Musgrove got nicked up early for a couple of runs, then settled down beautifully. Seven innings, two runs, nine K's. He is 8-0 with a 1.59 ERA and a surefire All-Star if I've ever seen one. There is no doubt he is our ace now, and a homeboy to boot! This elevates the playing level of everybody in the rotation. With five days rest, he can go seven innings. In the end, what would you prefer, a pitcher going five every five, or a pitcher going seven every six? I prefer the pitcher to be well rested and sharp. Look at Musgrove's numbers: not only do they speak, but they scream for themselves.

The Cubs have this kid, Chris Morel, who can really rake. Think the Cubs miss Kris Bryant? I doubt it, and this kid just hit some pretty good pitchers. 

Meanwhile, Mazara is hitting .350 and really has a neat swing, es evidenced by his homer, his first as a Padre, in the second inning. Outside low pitch, reached for it, and gonzo. Hoz got two hits and two runs, Manny got three hits, plus more Gold Glove play at third. Manny is just an incredible player, at the risk of repeating myself. I can picture the Padres without Tatis, but not without Manny. Knowing Manny is over there on third every day is comforting. I would love to see the Padres win a World Series with him.

Cron is at .246, but now a spark plug instead of merely a power absorber. One hit, two walks. We really need Cron to be Cron. Remember that he was actually just an afterthought in the Tommy Pham trade? Lest you noticed, Compadres, Pham is no longer here, and I don't miss him one bit. Guy went from St. Louis to Tampa Bay to San Diego to Cincinnati, and I have a feeling there will be more teams to come. For all of his talent, he seems to have an aggressive stance to him that people find repulsive. Slap a guy over fantasy football? Okay, then. This has assault charges written all over it.

Meanwhile, the Braves have won 14 straight, the Yankees might be the best team in baseball, and the Angels still can't win, even with Trout and Ohtani in the lineup back-to-back.   

Padres 19, Cubs 5

You read that correctly, it was the friars by two touchdowns. 19 runs, 21 hits. Our goal is achieved. We've won the series and will go for the sweep this afternoon with Musgrove taking the mound. We are 16 games above .500 and looking good.

Our guys are just abusing their bullpen. And for a change, we actually touched up their starter, Caleb Kilian, who, you guessed it, entered the game with a five plus ERA. This was his second career start, so I guess we were due. 

Before the game, I read that Ryan Weathers was being called up to start against the Cubs, with Clevinger on the COVID list. I have no idea what we see in this kid. Last year, he would start every fifth game, give us four innings and leave the rest of the game to the bullpen. He has a seven plus ERA in El Paso, and somehow that was good enough for a callup to the Majors. If he is the best we can get from our minor league teams, then our farm is in serious trouble. Weathers didn't show us anything last night. 3 2/3, six hits, four runs, four walks. And somehow we ended up with a blowout. Usually, with this offense, giving up four runs is a death sentence. Throughout the game, I was only thinking Let's just get to their bullpen and see what happens. I don't know what the Cubs' bullpen's ERA is for this series, but they might want to consider their own farm system, because these guys flat out suck. The Cubs are in a bad place right now. I still can't believe we lost a series in San Diego against them.

With Weathers starting last night's game, it all but confirms what we knew all along, that we have a six man rotation. I don't think any of the Compadres care if it's a ten man rotation as long as we have that depth, which we do, as it so happens. Guess what, so do the Dodgers. So Buehler Walker goes down? Dustin May? Trevor Bauer still can't pitch? Here comes Tony Gonsolin, who is undefeated. Tyler Anderson lost a no-hitter last night in the ninth against the Angels. Think the Dodgers couldn't have a six man rotation? We simply can't match their bats, our previous barrages aside here. Betts followed by Freeman followed by Trea Turner? Chris Taylor is batting eighth, Gavin Lux ninth with a .286 average. 

One thing our guys got to do was pad their stats. Cron is up to .245, Alfaro at .284. Grish got two hits from the ninth spot and is at .189. In the midst of all this, Manny got career hit number 1,500, to go along with three hits, three runs, and four RBI's. 

Looking ahead, we need to play the Rockies this weekend, and I hope we're ready for them this time around.

Padres 12, Cubs 5

This offense is beginning to give me the fits. For the fifth straight game, our offense didn't have an answer to a starting pitcher, again with a five plus ERA. Granted, this was Kyle Hendricks, who owns us, but he was at 2-5 this season with the high ERA. Have no fear, struggling pitchers, the San Diego Popguns are here. Hendricks was yanked in the sixth, but I'm guessing it was really to make sure he left on a high note following his struggles this season. By then, he already had a 5-0 lead. Should have left him in there, Skip.

Our popguns turned to howitzers once Hendricks was gone. For the second straight night, we destroyed their bullpen. Luke Voit, until now a big black hole in the cleanup spot, finally gave us the big hits we needed. He hit a two-run jack to get us on the board, then a three-run double to give us a lead we wouldn't relinquish. I think people really want to see Voit succeed in San Diego. Maybe he put too much pressure on himself with Tatis out of the lineup. Granted, this isn't the New York Yankees type of pressure, but we are contenders, and you will need to perform to stay on the roster.  

One thing that might have fueled our comeback was Wilson Contreras' second homer in the bottom of the third inning. I think he might have chirped a little too loud, which might have ticked off our guys a bit. That does take cajones to start talking in the third inning. Granted, a three-run deficit is usually a death sentence for this offense, but you still have to play the game. Grish was the leadoff batter, giving Profar a rest, and he did horribly against Hendrick with two K's in three AB's. In his defense, he did have a 10 pitch at bat to lead off the game with, which is a manager's dream. Three more hits for Cron...he is now the sparkplug with Manny cooling off. Two hits each from Alfaro, Kim and Mazara. 

From Manaea, we needed a quality outing and didn't get it. Four innings, eight hits, five runs, plus two dingers. This must have been the first time since Oakland that he's pitched under six innings. That means our bullpen, now well rested, had to perform, and they did. Two zeroes by newcomer Kyle Tyler, two more by Crismatt, one by Ray Kerr.

This was our biggest comeback of the year, but we also need to put it in perspective. We need to start putting quality AB's against starting pitchers, or the late innings won't matter against the Dodgers or Giants. We teed off against a bad bullpen--no more, no less. If we can't score runs against average pitchers, what are we going to do against Scherzer or Gonsolin or DeGrom? Not raining on anybody's parade, but to win a pennant, we need more balance.

The talk of the town was Atlanta's 13th consecutive victory, but this, too, is a little inflated. Their opponents were the Pirates, the Rockies, the A's, and the Nationals...that's a lot of fluff. They have one more game with the Nats, three games with the Cubs, then seven games against the Giants and Dodgers. Enjoy, world champs.

With a victory in the first two games of this series, this means we need to split the remaining two games to meet our (actually my) objective of winning this series. Losing more games against sub .500 teams won't cut it at this juncture.

Padres 4, Cubs 1

Another kid starter shut us down today. Ever heard of Justin Steele? Gotta like the name. Pitched seven, gave up one run on six hits. Right now, it seems you can throw anybody at us, and we can't hit. Back to reality following a 30-run barrage in three games. Something will have to give in this lineup.

Darvish, luckily, was more than up to the challenge versus his former teammates. Eight innings, one run, and one well deserved W. Nice to give the bullpen a rest following another cross-country trip with no day off. In the end, though, I am only wondering more about our hitters. The last four starters had a combined five-plus ERA against us. Is it really that easy to shut us down? Today we face Kyle Hendricks, who owns us. Feel lucky, guys? Manaea will need at least a quality start to give us a chance.

Wrigley Field, of course, brings back other memories, aside from movies like The Blues Brothers and Ferris Bueller. I'm referring to our 1984 pennant winners, of course. The old-timers among us remember it well. NLCS, Game 1, Padres versus Cubs, Rick Sutcliffe versus Eric Show. And those who remember also know we got our heads handed to us that day. 13-0. Thirteen. Zip. Unlucky numbers, both of them. Sutcliffe pitched seven shutout innings and hit a dinger, for the final knee to the nuts. Bob Dernier Homered. So did Ron Cey (thought he was done pestering us just because he left the Dodgers?). Gary Matthews even hit two. 16 hits in all, once they let us out of the slaughterhouse. Game 2 was more amenable, although they still won, 4-2 behind Steve Trout's pitching. The Cubs' fans gave us hell. Back in those days, the NLCS format was 2-3, meaning, in this case, two games on the road in Chicago, followed by three at home in San Diego. I don't think there were many Compadres then who thought there would be a Game 5, or even a Game 4. But we did win Game 3 behind Ed Whitson. The rest, as they say, is history. Padres fans came out in droves and carried this team. Still my proudest moment as a Padres fan.

All right, I just turned the time machine around in time for the year 2022. On offense, it's funny how things happen for us when Profar gets on base. Cron had three hits behind him, and Manny had the tiebreaking single in the eighth. Hos had a big two-run double for us that should reverse his fortunes somewhat. Hos is so important to this lineup. If he doesn't produce, we get shut down once Manny had his AB from the three spot. Tied for first place. To make up for the games we lost against the Rockies, I demand three out of four in Chicago. 

Rockies 4, Padres 2

The dangerous thing about not respecting your opponents, which we clearly didn't do following Game 1 of this series, is that they will give that little extra to show you that, no, we may not be equal to your season, we are going to show you that we are equal when we play you. In this four-game series, we won one game, squeezed out another, and were outhustled in the other two. In other words, it really is a lost series. 

This was the stuff that doomed the Padres last year. The Rockies will play, they will show up, and you will get beaten if you don't match their fight. I get it, guys, you were just taken to the limit by the Cardinals, Brewers, Giants, Braves, and Mets...but now the switch is off against the Rockies? Dangerous thinking, that. So we can't turn it on for the Rockies, but don't worry, we'll be out there for the Dodgers? Guess what, Padres: nobody sees that switch, but they feel it. They feel it when, all of a sudden, our hitters can't touch their starters with their 5-point-plus ERA, which happened again today. Three subpar starters, but our batters can't touch them? Okay. The Rockies don't count, right? Just another major league team.

Snell got six innings, which was good to see. His pitch count was up, but he was battling. Six innings, two runs, that's what we need. Can't fault Snell for our hitters taking another day off. Voit finally got a valuable hit which cut their lead to one. We tied it, denying German Marquez a chance at a win. Our bullpen finally gave up a run after 12 shutout innings against Colorado, and those runs made the difference. This is all on the offense. Three straight games against average pitchers, and we squeezed out one win. Read the newspapers much, boys? Think we're that great? We'll see the next time we play the Rockies, because the advantage is now theirs. They think they can beat us, just like they did last year. Again, you think we might have learned our lesson last year, but I guess no't. Two runs per game over the last three games at home against the Rockies. Let's forget about those series victories against the Mets and Giants, shall we? We could have been in first place by now (after the Giants swept the Dodgers), but we decided to play the Rockies at 50 percent strength and intensity. We'll see them in a week at their place. I know one team will definitely be ready to play.  

Guys, the Padres, and by virtue the city of San Diego, are in a playoff race. We thought that meant blood games against the Dodgers and Giants. Bored, perhaps? Maybe we'd like to invite the Rockies to join us in the playoff race, because they certainly don't seem to think they are a lesser team than we are. Cubs next, four games. They are 13 games below .500, by the way. Care to play, or sit this one out? 

Padres 2-2, Rockies 1-6

Me and my big fat mouth, or keyboard. Jinxed my team when I most expected it. What did I say about the Rockies again? How they whipped us last season? How I think we might be over them this year?

We split a doubleheader with them, and were lucky to get the one game. We won the opener, 2-1, behind another classic Nicky Martinez outing. 5 2/3, one run, nine K's. Just very, very solid. Nicky didn't beat himself or serve up any fat pitches. Gave our team a chance to win, even though he got another ND. We scored two runs and won it in 10 when Machado raced home on a catcher's error following an errant throw to third. Their guy, Ryan Feltner, a kid with seven career starts, held us to one run over six. Three total hits for the game, yuck. Lucky we won it in extras, and the bullpen finally got in some work, putting up zeroes for 4 1/3.

That means the nightcap would only get better, right? Not quite. McKenzie Gore didn't make it out of the third inning and was just all over the place. Six earned, four walks. We needed the bullpen to eat seven, and although they did it with style, the game was long over by then. We'll see how the kid bounces back from this one. It's probably best to get your suck in before the games start getting really important. It was disappointing in that we had already won game one and then had one of our best pitchers lay an egg, while Kyle Freeland, the Rockies starter with another 5+ ERA, shut us down by giving up two runs and three hits. That's a total of seven hits for the twin bill, a total of four runs, in front of the home crowd. Nope, I think it's safe to say the Rockies aren't done pestering us yet. Nor are our offensive woes quite solved yet.

Over to our opinion corner. In our seven-man rotation, I would pitch our guys in this order:

1. Joe Musgrove. Solid, dependable with nastier stuff than last year. Good clubhouse presence.
2. Yu Darvish. One bad game against the Giants, looking good. Experience is key.
3. Gore McKenzie. Young, but with explosive stuff. We need to make sure last night's game was a fluke.
4. Sean Manaea. Durable, experienced, a guy you root for. He could easily be the third starter. too. Gives the bullpen valuable time off.
5. Nicky Martinez. He's done everything we asked him to do. It's intimidating working on this pitching staff, but he's done it. Even if he's not in the rotation, he's a weapon.
6. Mike Clevinger. Mike could be anywhere on this list, depending on how we move forward. Looking at his stuff, he should be top three. We'll see.
7. Blake Snell. Snell, too, could be anywhere on this list, but I just don't think he's learned to pitch. That's quite statement to make for a guy who's won a Cy Young award, but with his repertoire, he should be winning 15-20. It's all between the ears for him. 

Our pitchers and how Bob Melvin uses them will be essential to our success. The offense, as of now, is average, our last three-game barrage notwithstanding. I think Hos is being benched, let's see if we can get him back out there today. Hos, for a long time, carried this offense with Manny. Luke Voit is just average, unfortunately, and taking up valuable at bats from the cleanup spot. At best, he should be a platoon player with Hos, should this be required. The offense is too inconsistent. When you have Kim batting fifth and Nola sixth, as we did for game two, chances are you're not going to win many games. 14 games over .500, a half-game behind the Dodgers, four ahead of the Giants. I still like it.

Padres 9, Rockies 0

One fatal flaw of last year's team was neglecting our "lesser" division rivals, like the Rockies or the Diamondbacks. With all of our hype spent on the Dodgers and, much too late, the Giants, we totally ignored the fact that we needed to play almost 40 games, or 25% of our schedule, against Colorado and Arizona. There are no gimme games within the division. Even if a team like Colorado is eliminated, those guys will make sure their crappy season wasn't for not, so they will want to prove their metal against stronger teams. In this case, the team with nothing to lose can have a slight advantage.

We started off our series with Colorado right by blanking them, 9-0. We have averaged almost 10 runs over the past three games, so there's more evidence our offense is coming around. Profar tripled and scored two runs. Mazara and Kim each had three hits, Nola had two. Grisham scored twice. Manny homered. Our MVP, of course, was Joe Musgrove, who pitched six shutout innings, picked up the win, and lowered his ERA to a ridiculously low 1.50. With each goose egg Musgrove throws up there, the more bread management will have to cough up once they see they will have no other choice but to sign our homeboy and budding ace.  

Musgrove is now 7-0. From 1985, I recall Andy Hawkins winning his first 11 decisions in the year after our pennant drive. In the end, he had an 18-8 record, I believe. Two years later, he won 14 more games for us before being signed away by Steinbrenner's New York Yankees in free agency. Musgrove will lose at some point, but he, Darvish, and Gore are absolutely essential to our playoff aspirations. 

We are now 14 games above .500 and a game behind the Dodgers, who were dropped by the Giants. Too bad we don't have a rivalry with any team the way those two do, but we haven't won anything big enough yet for the games to seriously matter. There is no team I hate more than any other, as much as most Compadres will convince themselves that we need to be mortal enemies with the Dodgers. Having said that, I would say our biggest enemies are the Dodgers and the Giants, simply because they happen to be in the same state. If there is one team I love beating, then it's the New York Mets. Having lived in New York myself, I have watched the Mets more than any other club with the obvious exception of the Padres. I don't know who the best fans are in America, but I'm pretty sure the funniest fans are Mets fans. They have suffered for so long, they simply can't help themselves. 

I see the skipper is going with Martinez today, so our six-man rotation is still intact. 

Padres 13, Mets 2

Around this time last season, we were sitting well following some really good showings within the division and series wins against the Cardinals and Astros, among others. The turning point of the season came when we played a stretch of 13 games, against the Central leading Chicago Cubs and the East leading New York Mets. We went 4-9 in those games, which deflated any confidence I may have had for the Padres. Our bullpen was pitching too many innings, and our manager Jayce Tingler looked like he was in over his head, which he was.

This year, we had a long, tough stretch that included series in Atlanta, Philadelphia, and San Francisco, in addition to playing the Brewers twice, the Cardinals, and the Mets, with a series with Pittsburgh sandwiched in between. We went 15-10 in those games and more than held our own. The cherry on top, of course, was last night's blowout win over the Mets. We've scored 20 runs the past two games, which means the bats are finally waking up in a big way. Profar, again, was unstoppable from the leadoff spot, reaching base three more times and scoring three runs. Cron had three hits including a homer and five RBI's. Mazara had two more hits, Grish two more runs. It is all coming together. Every starter had at least one hit. The only blemish was Voit and a 1-for-5 from the cleanup spot. It's not working for him yet, but we'll need it to if we want to get somewhere. 

Our success will rise and fall with our starting pitching, as if that hasn't been made abundantly clear already. Manaea broke his losing streak in style, allowing one earned run over seven frames. Manaea has pitched six innings in 10 of his eleven starts, which is money. The competition for a space in our rotation has just gotten that much stiffer. Crismatt added two shutout innings to give the bullpen another day of rest, so we are all geared up and ready to roll against the Rockies, our next opponent and one that gave us the fits all of last year. One thing we did so frequently in 2021 was show up against the high profile opponents while delivering duds against the bottom dwellers. We don't need to be reminded that these are all still professional ball clubs. The Pirates, for instance, went 5-1 against the Dodgers this year...go figure. That's why they play the games, that's why the players need to earn their corn every day. Aside from that, there are also the fans in the stands at Petco. They were jacked UP last night.  

My understanding is that Wil Myers might be out for a while, although we won't miss him. We are 13 games above .500 and cruising. I like what I am seeing.

Padres 7, Mets 0

I think we knew that Game 1 of this series was an aberration more than anything else. If you can hang 11 runs on our pitching staff, then it means you're incredibly hot, or we are starting Blake Snell. Last night was business as usual for our starting pitching: after Musgrove's bid for a no-no in Milwaukee last week, Darvish held New York hitless until the sixth. Not bad at all. Seven innings, two hits, no runs, six K's. If it hadn't been for one bad start he lost in San Francisco in which he got hammered for something like eight or nine runs, his ERA would be under 3.  

The offense: our people are picking it up. Profar homered to lead off the game and drew three walks. That's exactly the stuff we need from our leadoff guy. Profar's batting average is up to .248 and, more importantly, his OBP is at .348. We are going to keep him in the leadoff spot until he can no longer handle it. One thing I am extremely pleased with is the Mazara/Azocar platoon in right field. Those guys love to compete, and it is helping pur ballclub. Heck, their batting averages are among the highest on the team. Cron and Manny had two RBI's each. Manny is down to a more human .325, although this doesn't concern me at all. If we can get the bottom of the order going with Kim, Grisham, and Nola watch out. 

One of the stories of the day was the return of Adrian Morejon after Tommy John surgery. He pitched two shutout innings, and his fastball was as lively as ever. That's another break for the bullpen after Snell's dud the day before, Good starting pitching can do so much for you. Whenever you can roll out Musgrove, Gore, and Darvish, you have to like your chances. Clevinger is still a question mark at this point, although I don't think we need to start him every five days. We need to build him up and then give him innings when we need them the most. Martinez is very capable of putting up quality starts for us, and we'll see what his role will be moving forward. No idea what to do with Snell. Smart money says you can never have enough starting pitching, although I think we've hit the wall with Snell. That leaves us with tonight's starter, Sean Manaea. When you look at his starts, then you realize he has only had one bad outing, which was against the Dodgers. He hasn't won a game since April, but he has 10 starts and 62 innings with a 3.77 ERA. Hard to keep him out of the rotation. I have a feeling Manaea is s starter who needs run support. Again, the over under for a Padres game seems to be 4 here. 

That's three shutouts in the last five games, all against the Brewers or Mets...I'll take it. A series win tonight would be even better.

Mets 11, Padres 5

Again, I seriously wonder about the suits scheduling these games. Game in Milwaukee on Sunday, game the next day in San Diego the following day following a cross country flight. The Mets only had to travel in from L.A. Who really has the road game here?

All scheduling woes aside, we stunk up the joint, just in time for the fans and our home opener. Blake Snell was Blake Smell again: 4 IP, 7 H, 5 R, plus 3 BB. Of course, he threw 95 pitches, put our fielders and fans to sleep while also using up five innings of mop-up time from the bullpen. His initials are BS, which is what his outing was. In the first inning, he gave up a three spot, walked three batters and handed the game to Carlos Carrasco on a silver platter. Again, we're only 55 games in and still looking good. This was the first crappy performance by one of our starting pitchers since...well, probably Snell's last start. There is no doubt he is the weak link on this staff. We can still run him out there every sixth day and continue to be a drain on our resources, or we can trade him to a club that can sort him out, most likely the team he misses, the Rays. Either way, I can't think of a more useless player on this team.

The hitting continues to show signs of improvement. Profar had three hits from the leadoff spot. Luke Voit hit another one of his garbage time dingers, a three-run shot in the bottom of the eighth. We also did not execute fundamentally. In the first inning, Profar had a lead-off double, followed by a Cronenworth strikeout. We are not going to beat the Brewers, Cardinals, Mets, or Dodgers by hacking away, but by playing sound fundamental baseball. Runner on second, no outs? Cron, move him over. Profar being stranded gave Carrasco a huge lift, as if he needed it. Later, it was Mop Up City: three innings from Wilson, two combined by Stammen and Hill, who both got hit hard. 

This is another tent game, in that there are many New York transplants in the crowd. New Yorkers, of course, are not shy about rooting for their team, which tends to alienate the locals. I have an idea for that: play better, guys. One of their guys, Eduardo Escobar, hit for the cycle. Remember what I said about the Padres and no-hitters? I'll see you that and raise you: it took our franchise 7,444 games to hit for a cycle until Matt Kemp finally pulled it off in 2015. Are you counting? That's 46 seasons! 46 seasons without a cycle or a no-hitter. Big wow. For a long time, the Padres jokes wrote themselves. All you needed to do was look at the box scores.  

We have Darvish going for us this evening, and we'll need a big game from him. We showed we can play with the best from the Central, now we need to show up against the Mets.

Padres 6, Brewers 4

That's three in a row in Milwaukee, although we needed 10 to do it this time around. Big, big win. We had to prove to ourselves that we could beat somebody else in the NL Central other than the Reds. Mission accomplished. We beat the NL Central leaders. Perhaps we can beat the beast from the east next, the Mets? They just split a four-game series in L.A., so they are for real. 

The hero was, again, Cron Zone with a three-run dinger in the 10th, his second winning shot in as many nights. Machado's average is down to under .340, which shouldn't surprise anybody. He just faced some of the best pitching in the league over the past 10 days with the Brewers and the Cardinals. Luckily, besides Cron, other players are picking up the slack, in particular the bottom of the batting order. Grisham got a hit and a walk. Azocar got a hit and two runs. In addition, Voit got two hits, although I feel he is lacking the power we need from the cleanup spot. 

The pitching: Clevinger was back, so Melvin needed to shuffle his rotation again with seven healthy starting pitchers. Clevinger pitched three innings with one run given up, followed by Nick Martinez with four innings and two earned. Seven innings and three earned should suffice, or, at the very least, keep you in the ballgame. I doubt Melvin gives a toss how he gets his innings as long as the quality part is fulfilled. As a reminder: we have used seven starting pitchers this year, including Darvish, Clevinger, Martinez, Musgrove, Gore, Snell, and Manaea. Judging by the rotation, Melvin is going with a six-man rotation, since Musgrove won't be facing the Mets. The question is, how long do we keep seven starters? Could we trade one? The bullpen did its job, but was shaky. It was nice to see Rogers get the save after blowing it on Thursday. Suarez allowed three baserunners, but Tim Hill, whose ERA now sits at 5.40, made some quality outs to send this into extras. 

Then there's another former Padre who's made good in a Brewers uniform, Eric Lauer. Lauer was average when he pitched for us, although I remember he beat the Dodgers every time he faced them. That was reason enough to keep him for a while. He pitched well enough against us today, that's for sure.

I'm wondering what Melvin's thinking was. Clearly, he was keeping Clevinger on a pitch count. Clevinger was at 60 pitches after three, which is too much, but probably not surprising. That's why we put Martinez in to give us another 70 pitches. Gutsy performances all around. I'm not sure I'd have kept Martinez in to start the eighth, simply because the percentages are against him. He had just pitched four shutout innings, after which we got a little greedy. Then again, with a seven man rotation, we can afford these types of experiments. Good ending to a tough road trip. Time for some home cooking. And we will need more than two or three runs per game. It seems to me the number we should be gunning for is four. With our starters, you have to like our chances.

Padres 4, Brewers 0

Make it two shutouts in a row, this time courtesy of our first-round blue chipper McKenzie Gore. While other Padres fans may be pointing to Tatis or Manny or even Melvin for our club's turnaround, the thing I am most excited about is that 1-2 punch of Musgrove and Gore. Have them pitch back-to-back, and it might even make a good team like the Brewers look weak. Can you imagine them in the playoffs? And yes, Compadres, that's where I see us. There will not be another collapse like last year. Not with Bob Melvin at the helm.

Remember when Gore was only a top prospect in this organization? How the Padres steadfastly refused to trade him? How he tanked in the Minor League prospect rankings after a shaky year on the farm? I have no idea what happened, but it seems like something lit a fire under his tail. He is as close to unhittable as any pitcher in the league right now. Long term, it would be nice for him to throw fewer pitches. We don't need another Blake Snell with a hundred pitches thrown by the fifth inning, plus the hundreds of fans who are put to sleep. 

BIG game from Cron, that might have been the breakout performance he needed. RBI double, then a two-run dinger to ice it. That's the Cron we've come to know and love. Anybody still remember Tommy Pham? With all of his talent, I never thought he was a player we could rely on. Good luck with the Reds, Tommy. Don't slap any of your teammates. The real catch in the Tommy Pham trade was landing Cron. Cron has been pressing too much, as we can see. He has still brought superb glove work to the diamond, which is why he is still an everyday player. A Cron who can hit and field is our gadget player, our Deebo Samuel. For overall importance for this team, I rank him right behind Manny. 

Pitching for the Brewers, of course, was none other than Aaron Ashby. Some of the older guys may remember the A. Ashby in Padres box scores very well, as in Andy Ashby, #43, who pitched so well for the Padres in the late 1990s and was one of our stalwarts during our pennant run in 1998. I believe he had a few stints on the DL, but he was fun to watch in both '98 and '99. Gave us 31 wins in those years, plus a ton of innings. Nothing but great memories from Andy. 

Now Aaron seems to have a bit of bad luck on his team...a theme Padres starters are all too familiar with. He's only 1-4, but has been a great addition since they put him in their rotation. Was pretty darn good against us, too. The home run he allowed to Cron was off a good pitch, one that tailed a little late toward the inside. No walks, nine K's. Tough to win when your club can't score for you.

Two more hits for Grish, I like how the bottom of our batting order came through for us with three runs. Alcantara running out that double play grounder was huge for us. Replays showed he was safe, which would enable him to eventually score on Cron's double. It all starts with the pitchers, though. Musgrove gave us eight innings, Gore six. Good to see that the bullpen is not overworked, too many innings from our bullpen doomed us last year.

That's at least a split in Milwaukee, which is really not bad. I needed some kind of confirmation that we can hang with the top Central teams after losing a few series at home to Milwaukee and Chicago, plus the sweep in St. Louis. Very encouraging.

Padres 7, Brewers 0

When you look up and down their pitching lineup, the Milwaukee Brewers have nothing but bad matchups for our hitters, no matter who takes the mound. Corbin Burnes is one of them, and he had an off night against us, throwing 90+ pitches before he was yanked in the fourth. Musgrove pitched like the ace he is, taking a no-no into the eighth. The losing streak is snapped, we rolled out 13 hits, plus the bullpen got a day off after Musgrove gave us eight. Cheers, guys. This is the kind of baseball we are capable of playing. It's been a while since we won a game comfortably.

One thing that bugged me for a long time was how the Padres could never get a no-hitter, not in over 50 years of existence. It would always be somebody else. Some no-hitters were predictable (Verlander, Scherzer, Kershaw, Felix Hernandez), some seemed random. Many no-hitters were combined, a sure sign of the times. Consider this: the last time a pitcher threw for 300 innings was in 1980 (Steve Carlton did it). Do the math: Today a starting pitcher will get 30 starts per year. If you complete every one of them, you would have 270 innings. 33 starts per year seems to be the norm for top flight pitchers, and even then, you are shy of 300 innings if you complete every game. Now, 200 innings seems to be the standard, and even that's become rare. It's only a matter of time before we move to six man rotations, which the Padres have already done. 

Profar looks a lot better leading off, I must admit. This is pretty much his last chance to show he can hack it as an everyday player. Melvin tried to tuck him into the three spot, between Manny and Hos, and that flopped spectacularly. The leadoff spot is put up or shut up. You are the guinea pig, the first guy to face the starting pitcher and see what stuff he has. I don't think that baseball managers have the same criteria for leadoff hitters now that they used to. The classic leadoff hitter was Rickey Henderson, a cheetah who could get on base and run wild. I have no idea who is batting leadoff these days. There's Kyle Schwarber, a low average power hitter, or the Cards' Tommy Edman, who is a more complete player. The Yankees have LeMahieu, who fits more the prototype of a #3 hitter while the Marlins have Jazz Chisholm (love the name), a more bona fide basestealer. We'll see what Profar can do, but for now, I think we need to keep him at leadoff until he fizzles. 

Grish got two more hits, both doubles, and Voit got a couple of hits. I only wish I knew what is ailing Cron, who is still stuck at .206. Lord, why? Somewhere in an unknown location, the real Cron is gagged and sitting kicking and sweating while his doppelganger is messing up all of his at bats. I can't explain his decline otherwise, at least not for so long.

Brewers 5, Padres 4

So, we get nine hits, six walks, and we end our losing streak on the road in style, right? 

Wrong. This time it was Rogers' turn to blow the game, and he did it in style. Up 4-1 to start the bottom of the ninth, he gave up a single and hit two batters before giving up a bases loaded triple to Jace Peterson, of all people, only for McCutcheon to drive him in with a single to end it off Crismatt. Zero outs recorded in the ninth. The only thing I was worried about so far was the offense. Without Tatis, we are punchless, lack energy. Now, for the first time in history, I sure as heck hope I don't have to worry about a closer. The bullpen so far was good, now it's a concern as well. No wonder Melvin is so hesitant to pull his starters.

Bringing Melvin aboard was an alibi for the GM, who knew he was in it neck deep. With all of that money already spent on payroll, he needed to save face and find somebody who might be able to make chicken salad out of chicken dung. I believe in Bob Melvin, he was the manager I always wanted. But some part of him must be missing the A's. The A's, as in: trade away all of our blue chippers for talent that we will mold into more blue chippers that we will trade away for more talent, and repeat the process until your bright green caps turn blue. Here, the skipper is probably wondering what all of those minor leaguers are doing on his team. Hard for the chef to cook when he doesn't have the proper ingredients. Some part of him must be missing Billy Beane.

Grish's average is down to .159, but he drew two walks and executed a perfect bunt. That's the small ball we need to play. If all of us go up hacking at each pitch, we will go the way we did in St. Louis. So that's another lead blown, another close game, another game in which we were just good enough to lose. I doubt it will get any better. When we go home, we get to play the Mets. 

Looking at the Brewers lineup, I don't see a single guy batting above .250. It doesn't matter, because these people can string together rallies when they need to, not rely on the two or three run homer. That's called cohesiveness, which is why they are in first place while we only wish we were. On paper, you would think we would beat these guys, but it's not happening. Again, see team building. Do the parts fit together? Do we have an actual team, or just nine guys taking their hacks? 

Manaea, meanwhile, became the latest starter to get an ND. I wonder if he is missing the A's as well. What is he doing with a 2-3 record? We have Musgrove next, and I honestly don't know where we go from here.  

Cardinals 5, Padres 2

Sweep, sweep, sweep, we lost all three. Somehow we squeezed out two wins against the Pittsburgh Pirates with our lineup of Mendozas, which surprised me to no end. Against the Cards, a team of a different caliber, we merely teased them each game, but didn't have the guns to win any. 

Darvish was good, gave us 7 2/3 innings, but still allowed five runs...not many visiting teams will win in St. Louis like that, which goes double for our offense. That's 22 runs in our last nine games. We are wasting the best starting pitching staff we have ever had. That's the Cards 14, the Padres 7 for the entire series, good enough to lose all three games. Do we have anybody on the farm, perhaps? They couldn't do any worse than our guys. Voit homered, but his hits, I feel, have been less than clutch. No dinger in the ninth does us any good if there is nobody on base and we're trailing by a safe margin. Grish is at .160 and trying to pull everything. We need him on base, not swinging for the fences at every opportunity. It is now June, and our people are still in a slump.

Arenado, true to form, had three hits (including a dinger) and three RBIs, which made the difference. Their top of the order killed us the whole series. Their starting pitcher, Dakota Hudson, gave up one run in seven, only the latest pitcher to look like Sandy Koufax against our guys. It seems the starting pitcher gives up one run in the first just to tease us, like Enjoy, this will be the only run you'll get. We are still ten games above .500, and there is plenty of time to make the necessary adjustments. The Cards needed this series a lot more than we did, although the first sweep of a series by any team is still a little sobering. To make matters worse, we move on to Milwaukee, supposedly an even better team. We have Manaea, Musgrove, and Gore going for us. We'll need runs, though, or we'll lose another series.

50 games in, we stand at 30-20. Would I have taken that at the beginning of the season? You bet. There is still plenty of baseball left to play, and in the playoffs, anything is possible, as the Braves demonstrated last season. The trick is getting there, of course. There are plenty of contenders, including the Cardinals, who made a good case the whole series.

There was some good defensive plays by our guys, for sure. I loved Manny's pick and throw to end the second inning. That runner actually thought he had a chance. More good plays by Cron and Kim, so we have the pitching and defense. 

On to Milwaukee. We need to win two there for anything to come out of this road trip.

Cardinals 3, Padres 2

There was hope in last night's game, for the briefest of moments when our guys had Wainwright at 43 pitches after two innings. The rest of the story is as predictable as the proverbial sugar cube at a car wash. Wainwright, wily veteran that he is, settled himself down, shut us down, and would have picked up another W, if his bullpen hadn't blown it. Profar and Grish looked bad against Waino. He also got Manny twice, and Manny was tossed following his second K of the night. Manny needs to know better. At that point we are down two and still within striking range. Our bats, surprisingly, made a game of it on Grish's late game heroics, but it was lights out from there on out until the Cards walked it off in the 10th.

Snell, of course, was his predictable self. About 20 pitches per inning, putting the guys behind him to sleep. That's still his main blemish. We needed a quality outing in this game in the worst way. Snell delivered just that, but his timing is always the worst. Even during 1-2-3 innings, he throws too many pitches. If you need five to six pitches per batter to get an out, chances are you won't hang around very long. I have no idea why Snell is unable to hit spots, so that he can induce a grounder or fly ball with one pitch. Is it the chemistry with the catcher? Has he forgotten how to pitch altogether? Lord if I knew. On the face of it, his outing still looked good. Six innings, two runs, that's the stuff we needed. And yet, I never had the feeling that he was ever going to beat Wainwright. I have a feeling that if the Cardinals had never swung the bat off Snell they would have still managed to score a couple of runs. That's Snell in a Padres uniform. Unlucky? Perhaps. Has he been underachieving for us for us? Absolutely. Let's hope he can still build on tonight's performance.

Sadly, the bats haven't picked it up, either. Grisham, although his homer tied it for us, is in the ninth spot with a .163 average. Cano is at .158 and just can't turn on pitches the way he used to. Cron and Voit, our three and four hitters, have a combined average of .210. And I have no damn idea why Hos was on the bench. Who was going to protect Manny now? Cron? And why were we sitting a lefty against Wainwright, a righty? Well, I guess that's why Bob Melvin manages baseball while I only watch and write about it.

Arenado, a reliable Padres killer, was quiet in Game 1, but returned to his pesky self last night. Give him credit. Not many Rockies have made it outside of Denver's thin air, but Arenado has shown that he is a heck of a player wherever he's gone. I don't know about you, Compadres, but I usually think the same whenever I read or hear about a star player of the Rockies leaving Denver. Let's see if he can really hit now. Anybody remember Vinny Castilla? Troy Tulowitzki? They used to be damn good players. Post Coors, they couldn't hit a beach ball. 

Back to Machado complaining about balls and strikes. Although I didn't like it, it doesn't surprise me at all. The problem here is where the ump is positioned. Do you think he can follow every ball into the strike zone without the catcher framing the hide out of every ball? No way. Too many blind spots. Look at where the ref stands in cricket: right next to the bowler. It's no wonder that they rarely miss a call. The umps will continue missing pitches until MLB agrees to change (fat chance) and moves the ump from behind home plate. Install robots, if you must, but please do away with the old and tired tradition of Major League umpires calling balls and strikes behind the catcher.