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.