Padres 9, Rockies 1

It's a new game now, it seems. With Soto, Bell and Drury now in the lineup, we actually resemble a major league team. The day before, we swept a doubleheader from the Rockies. In the first game, we blew them out, 13-5, after spotting them an early three run lead. I suppose this came with the excitement of the trade, knowing that help is on the way. But that's only half of it. Here, our players (Grish, Myers, Nola, most notably) were playing for at-bats, starts, playing time, actually their roster spot. Where was this effort before, guys? You mean we had to trade for a few big guns until you could show us you could hit major league pitching? Wrong attitude.

We won the second game, 3-2, which brought us back to the old Padres, the maybe-we-can-squeeze-out-three runs-a-game Padres, the team that puts both the fans and themselves to sleep. We had Reiss Knehr in for a spot start, and he gave us 3 2/3, allowing two runs. Although the bullpen shut them down the rest of the way, I am concerned that the bullpen might actually be our Achilles heel in the end. I have rarely worried about the bullpen, let alone our closer, but in tight games, these are the guys who need to come through for you and put up zeroes. Grish won it with a dinger in the ninth. I like the power Grish is providing, but if you can't get an OBP of .300 in the majors, you are a liability. Grish is at .294, well below his career average. He needs to pick it up, and I suspect he will with the big guns now in the lineup.

Last night, we clubbed them, 9-1, after we put up five runs in the first inning. First inning runs...remember those? This one came courtesy of Brandon Drury, newly acquired veteran infielder from the Reds, who hit a grand slam in his first Padres at bat. Soto and Bell went a combined 1-for-5, but with four walks and four runs scored. Needless to say, this helps the other hitters...Manny homered, as did Crone. 

And then there's Blake Snell, formerly known as Blake Smell. It's amazing what a pitcher can do when he is given run support. Six innings for Snell, four hits, one runs, nine K's. And just like that, he has become a player again. That's four wins in a row for him, he has been masterful. If we want to make a deep playoff run, we need all ducks on board. Gore is gone, which leaves us Darvish, Musgrove, Snell, Clevy, Manaea, and Nick Martinez, should we need him. Now that's what I call a team.

No complaints right now. We are 16 games above .500, have won five in a row, and are heading for the playoffs at this clip. Steady on, Compadres. Let's win ourselves a pennant.

Padres 4, Rockies 1

Okay, so we can beat the Rockies. And like against all other teams, it will never be pretty. Clevy pitches seven, great to see him perform. Nice to see us score first inning runs, for a change, which helped Clevy considerably. Garcia is 2-for-2 in save situations, although I have a feeling he'll have to move over soon.

We pulled the trigger for closer Josh Hader from the Brewers and sent four players over for him, including Rogers (who lasted all of one half of a season in a Padres uniform). Good, I was never crazy about Rogers. Hader was struggling as of late, he was really getting kicked around quite a bit, so let's hope he'll pitch better in a Padres uniform. We can't have any more blown saves if we are to make a playoff run.

The trade heard around the world, of course, was Juan Soto and Josh Bell coming to San Diego for, well, a load of good prospects, plus Hoz and Gore. There's no doubt this is a gutsy move. They get Abrams (good), Hassell (our number one prospect, not so good), James Wood (our #3, again not good), Jarlin Susana (#14), plus Gore (ugh) and Hoz (good). So it's obvious that we are in win now mode. More important, we finally have some more punch in this lifeless lineup. Bell is an unrestricted Free Agent following this year, Soto will be after 2023. For now, they are rentals, which the Padres usually never acquire

Okay, so we can't blame the GM for trying, although whether we can sign Soto in the end is another question. We'll get first crack at him, that's the only thing that is guaranteed. Like all Padres fans, I am dreaming again. Bell, Soto, Manny, Crone, Tatis in a lineup...of course, I'm not sure Tatis will be back at all this year, that remains to be seen. But now we actually have a chance with our lineup. Our pitchers will always give us a chance, now we need the bullpen to step up and the bats to be swinging. 

Are we done dealing? Can we get another arm for the bullpen? What will our pitchers do with Gore gone? Why was he expendable in the end? Will we still have a six-man rotation? What's left in our farm system? Questions. For now, though, excitement.

Padres 3, Twins 2

I suppose we can only beat first place teams. We squeezed out another win against the Twins in the rubber game of our series. So that's the Mets and the Twins we beat while winning only one in Detroit. Okay.

Manaea gave us a quality start, allowing two runs on four hits with seven K's. Nothing special, but he battled and deserved to pick up the win. I'll take that every time. Even with an offense as challenged as ours, we will still be in the game and within striking distance late in the game. We needed to rally in the sixth to win it on a bunch of singles, but we got it done. Crone drove in the tying run with a single. Consistent production from Crone has been oh-so lacking this year. There's Kim and Profar who can get on base and score runs, but you still need the power bats (or bat, as in Manny) to drive them in. Crone I wouldn't consider a power bat, but he can drive in runs regularly, as evidenced by 30 doubles and 20 bombs last year. He's got 50 RBI's and will probably break last year's mark. His OBP is roughly the same as it was last year. And yet, Crone just seems off, not the force he was last year. Not having Tatis in the lineup can do that to you.

We are not that far off, really. Take Tatis and a mystery bat which we'll surely acquire by the trade deadline, and the parts fit together much better. We'd have a lineup of Tatis (although Tatis as a leadoff hitter is almost a waste), Manny, Crone, Soto/Ohtani/Happ, Profar, Kim, etc., and now your opponents will take notice. Your players need to complement each other, period. Combine Soto's power with Kim's versatility, for instance, and now you're cooking. Right now, we don't have the weapons to outgun the Dodgers, so we need to keep mixing. I wonder what the Nationals are waiting for in the Soto deal. I have a feeling they are trying to unload Patrick Corbin's insane contract. 23 mil this and next year, plus 35 mil in 2024. Now what if we traded a contract for a contract? They get Hoz, for instance, and we'll take Corbin? Nobody can possibly be that stupid to take on Corbin's contract, even if the Nats throw Soto and their entire farm at us.

The Nats made a deadly mistake with two contracts. The first one was with Corbin, although he did, in all fairness, help them win the World Series. It seemed like a good signing at the time. The second one was with Strasburg, who had just come off a career year before he was re-signed to a mega contract. Obviously, the Nats felt pressured by their fans to re-sign him following his great year, plus his performance in the WS. I knew that was going to be a mistake. Having a great year in a contract year is not hard. Before that, he had 23, 24, 28, and 22 starts, respectively. Dude went 15-4 in back-to-back years, which was phenomenal. But 33 starts, 200+ innings, plus the postseason in 2019 wrecked his arm. Great, great postseason, no doubt, but that's 250 innings over a full year, and everyone knew he couldn't take that load. The Nats will have five more years to think about that while they pay Strasburg 35 mil per season. Not a good ROI.

We have the Rockies next. Care to play against them this time around, Padres?