Twins, 7, Padres 4

Well, it was fun while it lasted. 

The four runs are really deceptive, being that we scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth when we were down by six. For eight innings, they handcuffed us, with the exception of a Manny homer (who else?) that gave us the lead. Musgrove pitched six, gave up two runs, four hits, eight K's. Not good enough. 17 runners left on base, our batting average with RISP is atrocious. We have an overall team batting average of .244, but we can't pull the trigger when we have runners on base. In last night's lineup, we had one good player (guess who). We have a few complementary players (or utility players, if you will), like Kim, Profar, Nola, and Voit. Then there are the players who have been underachieving, like Crone, Grish, and Hoz. 

One thing I miss about a winning team is that you can open up the box score in progress and expect a good result. Here, whenever I check on the games I am not watching, it's always fingers crossed. It's painful watching our team like this, slugging it out every single day. We can be beating winners like the Mets one day, only to succumb to dogs like the Tigers. A carriage one day, a pumpkin the next. Win one, lose one, win one, lose one, etc. until you put your fans to sleep. Let's rename ourselves the San Diego Z's. We can also talk about possible newcomers like Juan Soto or Shohei Ohtani or Lou Gehrig, for all I care, and it won't make a difference. Only the Padres can get geeked up about a single player, which is, of course, extremely foolish. The Dodgers will get a Max Scherzer and a Trea Turner and a Mookie Betts and still chug away, looking for that extra edge that will get them over the top. That's what winning franchises do. All our GM has proven is that he can spend money. Hooray, I guess, it's nice to have the kind of ownership to make funds available, but spending money does not buy chemistry, and it does not buy a team. Building a team takes skill, and we don't have it. Look at how the Rays have operated over the years, and they have won a ton of ball games...in the AL East, no less. Look at the A's before this year's inevitable collapse. Our GM simply doesn't have it. Sign free agents for big bucks, but no players to complement them. When you have a ton of money locked up in two players, but the rest of your team can't hit a beachball, then you are failing the team and the franchise. 

Same thing with the pitchers. A bunch of good starting pitchers, but not one good guy in the pen? A closer? So we have no bullpen, no offense, and no GM. Feel lucky, Compadres? Over the first eight games after the All-Star break, we are 4-4, meaning another fail. We need a spark here, and quick.

Padres 10, Twins 1

You always look at scores like this as a Padres fan, and you're thinking, "Whew, finally an easy one. I guess our guys can score runs." Reality strikes once you notice that this is only one game, and you can't distribute these runs over the course of a series. We can still lose 2-1 squeakers the next two games, and it will have all been for not. I have an idea, Friars: sweep the Twins, and we'll forget all about that little Detroit fiasco, shall we? I demanded a 6-3 record over the first nine games after the All-Star break, and I won't budge. It's put up or shut up time now.

Blake Snell: I realize I have been hard on him, but, again, I'm not backing down here. The fact that he had to wait for his first victory of the season until July 8 is plenty to drive all Compadres bananas, not to mention his manager and his teammates. Somebody with a Cy Young Award needs to do better, and, to his credit, he has. Now that the wins have dried up for Musgrove, we have found an unlikely savior in Snell. 3-0 for the month of July, plus wins against the Giants, the Mets, and the Twins, plus another stellar outing against the Dodgers...just what we needed when we needed it. 

Five homers from our guys...Manny, Voit, Hoz, Kim, and Alfaro, all in our City Connects uniforms. Not sure about the color combo of those uniforms, but I'll wear them if they keep winning. Lamet, called up after Gore was placed on the DL, pitched a scoreless inning of relief. I remember having such high hopes for Lamet in the 2020 season. It seemed he would put up zeroes anytime he started with that fastball, plus that wipeout slider of his. When he went down (plus Clevy), I knew we were toast. The question now is, what do we get out of him? Is his arm still there? You don't just go from worldbeater one moment to the minor leagues the next. Look at the BAA in 2020. .161. Sweet dreams are made of these, until you wake up and realize that you just got beaten by the Dodgers again.

Musgrove's extension is in the making, looks like the neighborhood of 100 mil for five years. At age 30, let's see if Joe is in the prime of his career, or whether we've actually seen the best of him. I still think that is a good signing. Joe is on the mound for us tonight and, like I said, hasn't won a ballgame in ages. C'mon, Padres. Pick up your man here.

Tigers 4, Padres 3

Well, we squeezed out Game 2 after Rogers blew a save in the ninth in Game 2. In Game 3, there would be no squeezing, as Rogers blew it again and lost it outright this time. Easily the worst closer I can ever remember pitching for us, and I have a long memory. In fact, this might be the first time I can ever recall the Padres having a problem with the closer. The guy's a setup man, at best, because he hasn't been fooling anybody for a while.

On the face of it, he has saved 28 of 35 saves, for an 80 percent conversion rate. The only problem is that his ERA over the last 30 games is six plus. Not impressed, and now he will have to face his former team, the Twins, who roll into town next. To the best of my recollection, we have never won a series against the Twins, and I don't feel lucky this time around.

Against the Tigers, we scored nine runs in regulation, not counting the extras in Game 2. Against the TIGERS, after beating the Mets. Not a good look, and it won't age well the deeper we get into the season. The Tigers? Pssshhh. Some homecoming for Crone, who remains mired in a season long slump. Why?

Aside from the fact that I am rooting against them this weekend, I have always been fond of the Twins as a franchise. I remember the old Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, an absolute wreck of a stadium, but, quite possibly, the loudest stadium ever. Those fans made some NOISE. 1987, Twins win the World Series in seven against the Cardinals. 1991, the Twins win the World Series in seven. The Twins went 0-6 on the road and 8-0 at home. See a pattern here? You couldn't beat them at home with that crowd. 

Of course, it helped that they had a stellar team: Kirby Puckett, Kent Hrbek, Gary Gaetti, Frank Viola...just an awesome group of guys who knew how to win. Great D, plenty of Gold Gloves to go around. 

Gore is on the DL, and we might not see him anytime soon. Lots of talk about us landing Juan Soto. At this point, the GM is desperate and will do anything to save his chair. 

Tigers 12, Padres 4

I'm afraid our heads got a little big after winning that series in New York. After last night's game, I'm fairly certain our helmets will fit again. Yuck.

We took a little bit from the Game 3 playbook in New York. We score first, they answer right away with a five spot in their bottom half of the inning. And we know what five runs means with the offense we have. You might as well call the mercy rule.

Sean Manaea has now been painfully average after putting up quality outing after quality outing over the first two months of the season. That's two times he's gotten bombed, and against AL teams, no less. First Seattle got him, now Detroit. Sean didn't make it out of the fourth, allowing nine runs, though most were unearned, thanks to an error by Hoz. That's a 5-5 record, with a 4.33 ERA. Not good enough. Adding injury to injury, MacKenzie Gore seems to have gotten hurt following his relief stint. No surprise, his velocity was down by a few miles, which the Tigers took advantage of. That said, we might want to rest him for a while. Out of all of our starting pitchers, only three have consistently impressed me: Musgrove, Darvish, and Gore. Those were the pitchers I envisioned to pitch in the postseason for us. Manaea is only average now, and Snell could be a weapon, but likely won't be. Leaves us with the other wild card, our starting pitcher for today's game, Clevy. What a difference Clevy could make on this rotation, although we need to know which Clevy we're going to get. I think we might have to use Nick Martinez for more spot starts.

Even so, I think our gamble on winning pitchers' duals might be coming to an end, simply because a) we can't score runs to save our lives and b) our pitchers have become hittable. Add to that the fact that Musgrove hasn't won a game in ages, and we might want to focus on getting somebody like Juan Soto.

This was Crone's homecoming, from what I can tell. Not the homecoming any of us imagined. C'mon, guys. These are the 2022 Tigers, not the 1984 version.

Mets 8, Padres 5

This was one game I didn’t necessarily want to win, as dumb and as traitorous as it might sound. If we had pulled or squeezed this one out, we would have had the Pinocchio syndrome, only that the growth would have happened to the head. Let's face it: if we had won all three in New York, our helmets probably wouldn’t have fit over our enlarged pumpkins anymore. Summary: good, we squeezed out two games in New York, and that’s how we will roll going forward. Hope our starting pitcher outduels theirs, and maybe our popgun offense will come alive at some point. Hey, it worked in New York. Let’s see if the Tigers care anything about our strategy, because we are off to Detroit for the next three.

About a decade ago, I remember visiting my sister-in-law’s family, who were living in the Detroit area at that time. We visited the Motown Museum, had dinner at a sports bar owned by former hockey great and local favorite, Chris Chelios, and then went to a ballgame. The new ballpark I didn’t care for, although I got to see Max Scherzer pitch against the Texas Rangers. Now the older, gruffier Compadres among us will associate the Tigers with 1984, when we were crushed in the World Series in five games following our exhilarating playoff win over the Cubs. I think we can also tip our caps to them. 

All right, so let the Detroit Tigers of 1984 have this post. They certainly deserved it. What runs through my mind whenever I think about that team? Legend. The greatest team I have ever seen in the non-roided era of baseball. The starting rotation had Jack Morris, who won 19 games that year, plus two against the Padres. Morris was a beauty of a pitcher, especially in the postseason. Dan Petry won 18 games, Milt Wilcox 17. You had a Cy Young winning closer in Willie Hernandez. On offense you had Lance Parrish, Alan Trammel, Lou Whitaker, plus the ultimate warrior, Kirk Gibson. You had sneaky contributors off the bench, like Tom Brookens and Ruppert Jones. You had pests like Chet Lemon and Darrell Evans. Aurelio Lopez came out of the pen to set up Willie. Of course, there was Sparky Anderson managing them, which parlayed their talent into a 105-win season, plus easy playoff victories over the Royals and the Padres.

We started in San Diego, where Jack Morris immediately shut us down. Gave up two runs in the first, then lights out. And we had plenty of opportunities against him, Lord knows. Game 2 was our moment of glory. Kurt Bevacqua won it with a three-run homer. Kurt, arguably the goat of the previous game, when he was thrown out trying to stretch a double into a triple, yanked one off Petry, I believe, and we were off to Detroit with high hopes after squeezing out Game 3. There would be no more home games in San Diego that year. The Tigers rolled us in five, and we just couldn’t compete with them in the end. Our peeps made a lot of noise at Jack Murphy, but the Detroit fans made plenty of noise. That has been the Tigers’ last World Series victory, if I recall. Just a great, great team, from top to bottom.

Back to Detroit in the year 2022. I wanted six out of the nine games against New York, Detroit, and Minnesota, and I stand by that. Make it happen, Friars. 

Padres 2, Mets 1

Sigh.

I guess this is going to be our blueprint for the rest of the season or at least until we can add a quality bat. Two runs. Their guy, Chris Bassitt, handcuffs us for four hits, two runs, no walks, eleven strikeouts. The starting pitchers just have a ball against our lineup. The only problem was that Bassitt did give up a two-run dinger to Manny, which made all the difference. Taylor Rogers gave them hope in the bottom of the ninth, and I can now safely say that Rogers might just be the worst closer we have ever had. 

Blake Snell won his second game, and he did it Tampa Bay Rays fashion-style, where he allegedly won 21 games and the Cy Young Award one year. Five innings, then have four relievers clean up after you. Snell pitched five shutout innings, to give him credit, but it's the same dumb, tired spiel again. Throw too many pitches, waste 20 or 30 pitches on two batters alone, and hope your teammates don't fall asleep out there. Strike one. Strike two. Ball in the dirt, ball one. Ball in the dirt, ball two. Foul ball. Foul ball. High and outside, ball three, foul ball, rinse and repeat until zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz........it appears Snell's ERA has dropped to under five, so there's some hope, I guess.

Profar and Crone with three K's each, two each for Manny, Voit, Mazara, and Kim. Hack. Hack. Hack. Hackety. Hackety. And wait for it...HACK. No hitting whatsoever. So our GM is banking on the old playbook that states you only need to win playoff series with closely contested games, not necessarily the division over 162 games. We'll see. We've played the NL East very well. Road series wins in Atlanta, Philadelphia, and now New York. 

The talk is mainly about the pitch preceding Manny's homer. At oh and two, Bassitt appeared to have Manny struck out on a pitch up in the zone. The ump didn't call it, the catcher didn't frame it well enough...who knows? I've said this before, and I'll say it again. The umpire posted behind the catcher has been a horrible idea since baseball started. Getting even one pitch wrong during an at bat changes everything. Every umpire must have the same strike zone, or it's all for the birds. Uncle Joe pitches tonight, let's give 'em a good finale.

Padres 4, Mets 1

One thing I won't ever do is dress down another Friars fan in public. Any Padres fan is welcome to me, we are all in the same boat, we all suffer together. There is no such thing as a Padre fan complaining, only one licking his wounds. 

Then again, some of our guys on the social media sites might watch some of their predictions blow up in their faces once in a while. Looking at the starting lineup before last night's game in New York, we had Hoz and Grish and Nola. The HORROR! In the end, Hoz and Grish hit a dinger, and Nola got on base twice. Is there any way Melvin or the GM can tweet back about the difference between a fan and an employee in the front office? All three of those players have underachieved, no doubt about it. Nola usually hits .300 or close to it, although his defense will assure he will be platooning at catcher. Grish has never been a high average kind of person, but he gets on base and can be a sparkplug when needed, in addition to his usually stellar play in CF. Hoz is not a bad player, never was, although I'm sure a big fraction of our fans think he hasn't earned his contract. But can all of these veteran players be useful in a pennant race? You bet.

The star of the night was, of course, Yu Darvis. Seven innings, four hits, one run. Good thing, with Max Scherzer on the mound. Scherzer pitched six, two runs allowed, six K's. It's not like we blew him off the mound. We are talking about a starting pitcher, after all, and we don't like hitting starting pitchers, either because they overpower us, because we simply can't eat, we are afraid to hurt their feelings, who knows? In the end, we were the team that can win when scoring four runs. Four does seem to be the magic number.

But hold your horses, Snell is up next, who has won all of one game this year. Best chance to hang up an L immediately after a win. Obviously, after winning Game 1, our goal needs to be to win the series in New York, no? After that, we have three in Detroit, followed by three with the Twins. Out of those nine games with the Mets included, I'd like to see a 6-3 record. We need to move along and start winning some games here in the second half. No pressure.

Rockies 10, Padres 6

So we score six runs behind our ace Joe Musgrove and win, right? Wrong. The Rockies scored five against Musgrove, five more against our overwhelmed bullpen, and they win another one easily. It always seems we save our worst for these guys. The Rockies can go back to suck modus once we're gone, but for now, they are still picking on us.

It looked good at first. Three run lead, for a moment I thought there would be a good chance of reaching the six runs and the 4-2 scoreline I had predicted, but that's Coors Field for you. We can't figure these guys out. If they need to outpitch us, they outpitch us. If they need to outslug us, they do just that. We are just good enough to lose to them, and it's annoying as hell. For tomorrow, I predict seven runs, as in 5-2, Rockies. We have Snell going, which is always crossed fingers, although he gave us two decent starts against the Giants and the Dodgers. They have Freeland with the customary five plus ERA, which means he'll shut us down. At some time, we'll need a players only meeting, because we have lost 12 of our last 17 and are dropping fast.

Oh, and another shoutout to rookie CJ Abrams, who boldly proclaimed he was brought here for a reason following his big game in Game 1 of the series. Shut up, rookie. You helped us win one game. Yesterday, you were a very ugly 1-for-5 and didn't look good doing it. The last thing we need is another mouth and chest-pounder on this team. Right now, you are mediocre, at best. Keep your head down, take your lumps, and learn, because right now, you look like a platoon player, at best. 

The only player worth a damn was Cron, but it won't do if we have one player at a time swinging a bat. The bullpen is unreliable at this point and can probably be traded in its entirety. Crismatt is good, but not great, and Rogers, our closer, is now average. We are still 10 games above .500, but with a product that doesn't convince anyone...not the fans, not the players, and certainly not our opponents. That leaves us with a killer starting rotation, who will see a serious decline in morale if they don't get some run support.

Rockies 5, Padres 3

I think I might actually be getting good at this. I called the 11 runs in Game 1, which the Padres won, 8-5, just as I predicted. Too bad I don't gamble. Now for Game 2, I had predicted 7 runs, and I was close. I predicted a 4-3 Colorado victory, and they won, 5-3. Does that mean I lose quasi currency, q-coin?

For today's game, I will go for six runs, although I still haven't decided who will score the four (yep, I'm guessing 4-2). Chuck it, with Mosgrove going, let's give it to the Friars, although I have no earthly clue where those four runs are going to come from

The fact remains that we can't hit their pitching, each one of their arms has a quality start in Colorado, especially Colorado. No thin air for us here, only heavy bats. Lots of singles, no power. We outhit, but get outscored the way the sun rises in the east and drops in the west. An even bigger pisser is the fact that I need to admit how big Tatis is to this team. Yes, we have a winning record. Yes, we will very likely make the playoffs. Might just beat the Dodgers a few times. But with Fernando in there, we always have the feeling that we can do something special, can beat anybody. That's the heart, the muscle that keeps the body not only moving, but doing backflips. Grish is a different guy with Tatis out there. So is Cron. Shoot, Grish is now dropping balls in the outfield, which is his turf. Nola is not hitting. Voit has too many zeroes, or oh-fers from the cleanup spot. Tatis is the weasel you throw into the chicken coop to get real live coverage from what is otherwise a dull barn life. And we still can only speculate as to when he might come back, or come back at all.

Clevy started well, but then his pitches didn't sink. I know better than anybody else than to judge pitchers by one performance at Coors. We put in Nick as well, but he wasn't as sharp as he usually was. I am officially concerned about our closer, who now has a 4.04 ERA. The problem is, the bullpen is no longer a weapon. That means Run, Forest, run! or have the starting pitchers give it their all, preferably seven or eight innings. We have four games here and need to come out with a split heading into the All-Star break. 

Giants 12, Padres 0

Finally, a full-out head-on full-collision blowout of our guys. I can live more easily with blowouts rather than the tight games where you knew that one play could have made the difference. You file this one away under SUCK and get on with it.

First of all, I called no more than five runs for the total game, which was a LOSS in a big way. We scored zero runs for the game, so we were certainly eager in delivering on our low offensive standards. The Giants had other ideas. 

Gore got lit up, and it's really happened just three times all season (the other two being against the Rockies). A rare outing of less than six innings by one of our starters. We gave Lamet the ball in the seventh, and he didn't look good. The bullpen, unfortunately, is now a reason for concern. With all of the innings our starters have had, you wouldn't think getting the right amount of short relievers could be a problem. Add to this that we have a closer who's been blowing games, and you have a recipe for an early playoff exit/no playoffs at all. Gore might be an important wild card of our own in the end.

On offense, Grish, Hos, and Nola are just not giving us the production that we normally count on. Perhaps Grish is missing fellow chest-pounder Tatis, I don't know, but he's been below the Mendoza Line for a while now. This offense doesn't have it, they all suck or explode at the same time, there is no cohesiveness, which will result in a lot of stranded runners. Power? Heard of that? Maybe some extra bases?

For tomorrow's game in Colorado, I'll be a little more daring. I will say there will be no more than 11 runs scored (combined). At Coors Field, anything can happen. Maybe we need some mile high air to break out of a mile long slump. 

Giants 3, Padres 1

The Padres, if nothing else, are predictable. Did I say five runs in my last post? Well, check the score. 

Darvish: superb, of course. Seven pitched, one run, in control. Their guy pitched a complete game, because...well, it's us. Our six-run outburst from last night aside here: when is the last time we touched up an opposing starting pitcher. Take your time. Meanwhile, while we are bragging about our six-man rotation and our guys going deep into games, their guy throws a complete game. Go figure.

Is that the GM's master plan? Have a superb six man starting rotation while skimping on offense? Hey, I've been following baseball for a long time now. The starting pitching is by far the most important ingredient for a pennant recipe. It could happen, you know. Okay, so we slide in as a wild card, then outpitch everybody? Hey, it worked for the Nationals in 2019. The foundation of that team was Scherzer, Strasburg and Corbin. Same with the Diamondbacks in 2001. Randy Johnson, The Big Unit, Curt Schilling (100% a Hall of Famer, BTW), and a slingshot here and there. Could it work for us? That's a gamble, for sure.

Maybe we are counting on Tatis to come back and come through for us. Tatis, listen to me: you and your family for generations to come will be provided for. You are already a legend in this town, possibly the most talented player to ever wear a Padres uniform. But we've had players like that. See that statue in the outfield? Winfield in the HOF with a Padres cap? What will you say when all is said and done? I liked motorcycles? We don't need any more Evil Knievels here, Junior. We'd like credibility. San Francisco and Los Angeles? They have trophies while we they still have their feet on our throats. Meanwhile, Mark Grant is laughing it off in the booth, and the GM can do no more than spend a ton of money. Anything to make ticket prices more affordable, right? 

Tomorrow: Wood against Gore. Wood has a 5-point-plus ERA, which means he'll allow one or two runs, tops. Like last night. The overall is five runs. Think you can shut me up?

Padres 6, Giants 3

Finally, a win for Blake Snell. That's a rarity for him, back-to-back quality starts, and against L.A. and San Francisco, no less. Six innings, 11 strikeouts, one run. Looking at Snell, there's no denying how good his stuff is. Breaking pitch, fastball, changeup. Challenge, Blake, challenge. Don't nibble and wait for the ump to give you the call, or you'll be sitting at 100 pitches after five like you usually do. Snell can be an asset on this team, but that needs to happen in a hurry, like before the trade deadline.

Then there is Nick Martinez, who now specializes in the three-inning save. With a six-man rotation, he is the odd man out, at least until we lose one of our starters to injury...unlikely with our pitchers getting five days of rest. So Nick comes in as a starter, gives us quality innings, then pitches three innings per outing to give the bullpen a much-needed rest. Aside from Musgrove, Martinez might very well be our MVP on our pitching staff.

The MVP on the field is Manny, of course. His three-run dinger in the first was a huge boost. To be fair to Snell, I don't recall the last time he received three runs of run support in any inning, let alone the first. That homer helped Snell settle in and deal. That's six runs in one game, and something as rare as an August rain in San Diego. This was also the first time in a long time that we touched up their starter, Sam Long, who didn't make it out of the third. All starting pitchers have been dominating us, period. Sam Long, though, is not a starter per se, more an opener, so there's an asterisk. I don't think he's ever pitched more than four innings in any of his outings. At some time, this batting lineup will have to come through against a real starter. Carlos Rodon, for example, the Giants pitcher tonight, will be a tough nut to crack, so Darvish will have to throw up some goose eggs. I predict tonight's game will have no more than five runs. 

We need one more game from this series before we need to man up and play Colorado, who can't wait to stick it to us again. Every win is sweet in this league, even more so against L.A. and San Francisco.   

Mariners 6, Padres 2

It seems to me we're still celebrating salvaging one game out of four with the Dodgers, because the Mariners came into town for some interleague play and took both games from us in convincing fashion. 7-2 in Game 1, 6-2 in the second game. 

For the first time in what seemed like ages, a starting pitcher, Manaea, was rocked in his start and didn't make it out of the fourth. Two first inning runs (remember those?) doomed him from the go, and the bullpen fared no better after that. Clevinger fared slightly better in Game 2 (no first inning runs) but still gave up four runs in six innings, more than enough to beat our rubber chicken offense. Two runs on average in the L.A. series, two runs on average against Seattle. I won't need advanced analytics to figure out that we will get our heads handed to us at this rate. Either we have single dingers, or we get hits and can't convert. For good measure, Taylor Rogers pitched the ninth and gave up two runs, which now puts his ERA at 3.48, which is unusually high for a Padres closer. 

Our bullpen is now average, at best. Our offense is the worst I have probably ever seen and our starting rotation the best we've ever had. Ever heard of balance, GM? I'm trying to give Preller the benefit of the doubt here, but the longer he stays in San Diego, the worse of a job he does. See the Rays in the A.L. East? How about learning from them? The Twins, perhaps? How about the Brewers? What grinds my gears even more is that people are now starting with this "Wait till Tatis gets back!" garbage again. We'll see. Like I said, I would love to see Tatis back, although I have little faith in his commitment. But hey, like I said, we can all redeem ourselves. It will only cost a little World Series ring that I don't need to even wear myself. 

Right now, I would say we are no better than a .500 ball club. We overachieved early in the season, but now there's just no unity on this team, no cohesiveness. We score two runs a game and suck doing that. I wish the skipper would stop batting Cron behind Manny, because it is not working. The Giants are next, and we need to win this series.

Padres 4, Dodgers 2

One of the cruelest jokes you can play on the Padres these days is to line up a good pitcher against us, score a first inning run, and then watch us chase it. This is like a laser pointer that I use with my cat whenever she needs cheap entertainment. Here it is, kitty. See that light, it's right in front of you! Oooh, you almost had it! Repeat until the cat quits, or nine innings are over, whichever occurs first. Nine out of ten times the Padres won't catch that laser light. Last night was the tenth time.

Clayton Kershaw is the primary reason the Dodgers have owned us over the past decade and continue to do so. 45 career starts against us, 23-9 with a 2.03 ERA. 310 K's in 292 innings. Add to the fact that he has won 24 games each against San Francisco and Colorado, and it's no coincidence the Dodgers are as dominant in the west as they have been. Kershaw threw seven shutout innings, allowing four hits and eight strikeouts. Kershaw is a first ballot Hall of Famer and just the franchise pitcher you want for your ballclub. Before there was such a thing as a pitch count, I doubt Kershaw would have been pulled after seven. Instead, we got to pull one out against former Padre Craig Kimbrel. Closer might just be the one weakness the Dodgers have. Kimbrel allowed three runs on three hits while recording just one out. 

Voit's double to score Cron was clutch, and we needed that in the worst way from him. At best, Voit is a platoon player, because the production simply isn't there. This might have been his biggest hit for us yet, and I believe this was the biggest win of the season for us. Here we were, about to get swept after being thoroughly outpitched, outhit, and outmanaged, and we pull one out. Huge win. We need to believe that we can beat these guys in tight games, and we just did. I loved watching Kim hit that two-run dinger to ice it. You just love to see Kim's effort day in and day out, whether he is playing or not.

MacKenzie Gore gave it all he had. Although the kid wasn't at his sharpest, he still lasted 5 2/3 with one run allowed. Five hits and four walks allowed usually doesn't make for a successful result against the Dodgers, but he made pitches when he had to. Valuable experience, pitching in situations like against the Dodgers last night. He beat the Giants and Brewers earlier in the season, two of the better teams in our league, so the belief that he can win in the bigs is definitely there. 

Breathe out, then play some interleague against the Mariners. 13 games above .500 and looking decent as we approach the All-Star break.

Dodgers 7, Padres 2

Last night was Yu's turn to get hammered. First inning, three dingers. Freeman, bam. Will Smith, bang. And Justin Turner for an encore. He still ate up six innings and struck out 10, but every run (especially first inning) that our starting pitchers give up is deadly. 

We have scored four total runs on offense in three games in L.A.. We started Yu and Musgrove and Snell, and we will try to salvage one game with the help of Gore, a rookie. Feel lucky? Did we overachieve earlier in the season? Could be. We won six against the Reds, five against the Cubs, and seven versus Arizona. I don't think there's any doubt that the Dodgers are the litmus test in baseball right now. The Mets will lose in the end because they're the Mets (as my New York friends remind me whenever I congratulate them on a big win), the Yankees are too top heavy with their power. Maybe Houston, although we have always matched up well against them. 

The Dodgers are playing cat-and-mouse with us right now, with the Dodgers starring as the kitty. So you think you can outrun me? Meow, ha ha ha. Okay, here's what we'll do: I'll give you a little head start. Awww, now, c'mon Mickey, I know you have very tiny legs, but I can give you more of a lead than that. Ten yards, there, I swear to God I'm giving it away. Ready or not, here I come! From there, just follow the script: the mouse runs, the cat reaches the rodent with a few strides, and the mouse is flung into the air before it eventually lands on its head. The mouse can't even hear the cat chuckle through the constant ringing in its ears, nor can it see the Dodgers cap on its head. Before its neck is broken, the mouse shakes its head in wonder. What just happened? I was waaay faster than him. You saw that, didn't you? That cat is too big and stupid. Why, the next time I'll... (Crrrrrraccck. The sound of the mouse's neck being broken.) The cat tosses the mouse into the corner and goes after bigger game, like that damn squirrel in the backyard. That, in essence, is life with the Dodgers in your division.

Tyler Anderson went to 9-1 with 6 1/3 pitched and one run allowed, the latest cat to shut us down. We all seem to suck at once. Cron was a big, fat 0-for-5, Voit hit another garbage dinger. We outhit them, but have little to no power while failing miserable in the clutch. We are getting crushed by them. I don't feel miserable about it, either, mind you. It is what it is. They are a superior team, period. We have to try harder. Or get a damn GM who knows how to assemble a team.

Dodgers 5, Padres 1

Let's see...so we lost the first game to the Dodgers, 3-1, despite a really great performance by Musgrove. Manny came back and was tested immediately on a base hit in the first inning, a double that he really had to hustle for. It drove in our only run, and somehow a bunch of Dodgers relievers shut us down the rest of the way. Manny being back is nice, although they sat him for Game 2, in which it was Tony Gonsolin's turn this time to play Cy Young against our popgun offense. 

Blake Snell pitched five, struck out 12 and gave up only one run. On the face of it, that might look good. Of course, our bullpen has been shaky lately, blowing back-to-back leads against the Phillies and the Snakes. In other words, that's four innings the bullpen will need to give you if you are to win in regular time. Turns out it wasn't necessary, as Stammen gave up the winning homer to Bellinger in the sixth. Hill gave up another couple of runs, and they cruised the rest of the way. The difference between Snell and Gonsolin: 107 pitches and five innings for Snell, 98 pitches and 7 2/3 for Gonsolin, who is now 10-0 for the season. Big difference, no? It's no coincidence that Snell has yet to win a game this year. The Padres have won the last five games Clevinger has started, although he has been shaky at times. Snell is just plain unlucky, I guess. Either he pitches poorly and loses, or he pitches well, and we can't score for him. Either way it's an L. Melvin is giving him plenty of rope, although I still believe he will be traded when the time (and the price) is right.

The Dodgers have now won 13 of their last 14 against us, which is no surprise at all. Their batting lineup blows ours out of the water. Their bullpen is much superior. I would say our rotations are about even, although the Dodgers have a few guys on the DL. Let's forget about winning a season series against them, a best-of-19. We haven't done that in over a decade. Our hope lies in making the playoffs and outlasting them in a best-of-seven. Sounds reasonable, doesn't it? Except that we still have to make it there, and the competition in the NL is kind of stiff. 

Our offense, in this shape and form, is hopeless. We have four real starters on this team (Manny, Grish, Hos, and Cron), and Grish is still hitting below .200, which doesn't help. Hos has slumped all the way to .273, and Cron is at .245. Voit is an out machine at this point, Kim never hits above .230, and the kid Abrams just get hit Major League pitching. Nola, Profar, and Mazara, though they have their merits, are really platoon players and struggle to produce on an everyday basis. We are at 46-33 and struggling to make it to the All-Star break.