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.