The San Diego Padres have been one of the hottest teams in baseball and are applying tons of pressure on the other NL teams vying for a wild card spot.
The San Diego Padres were a few games out of the final National League wild card spot just a couple weeks ago but find themselves locked into a three-way tie for the second spot behind the Chicago Cubs.
The Padres had a great start to the season, even sitting in first place of the NL West above the Los Angeles Dodgers for a short time before the Dodgers took off and San Diego fell into a prolonged slump.
Amid that slump, the Padres had the worst offense in baseball for most of the first half and the starting rotation was inconsistent. Fast forward toward the end of July and the Padres were hanging around in the race but not jumping teams in the standings, and general manager A.J. Preller told the media he wanted to be buyers at the trade deadline but needed a reason to buy.
Rumors of trading All-Star closer Mason Miller and other bullpen pieces like Adrian Morejon swirled, but San Diego’s offense woke up and started winning games. On July 23, San Diego was 50-53. Coming into play on Aug. 12, San Diego is 64-57.
The Padres ended up trading for left-hander Robbie Ray and right-hander Casey Mize to fortify their rotation and Ray will look to rebound in his second start as a Padre with a chance to sweep the best team in baseball on Wednesday.
The Cubs are red-hot right now and have a 6.5 game lead for the top wild card spot at 70-50, so they will be difficult to catch, but this hot streak from the Padres is applying tons of pressure on the Philadelphia Phillies, Arizona Diamondbacks and the teams behind them.
ESPN’s David Schoenfield claims that the NL wild card race is one of 10 storylines that will shape the rest of the Major League Baseball season.
Schoenfield mentions that the Pittsburgh Pirates, Washington Nationals, Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals are a winning streak away from making the race even more interesting, but the Padres are the team to watch down the stretch because the offense is getting hot at the perfect time.
“Since the beginning of July, the Padres are sixth in OPS and ninth in runs per game,” Schoenfield wrote Wednesday. “All three of their core players -- Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Jackson Merrill -- have played better, while Ty France continues as one of the bigger surprises of the season.”
I touched on the impact of the big three yesterday, but they continued their hot stretch in their 11-2 win over the Milwaukee Brewers last night. Machado went 3-for-4, Tatis went 1-for-3 with a home run and Merrill went 2-for-4 with an RBI double.
France has been outstanding all year long, and going 2-for-5 brought his season slash line up to .292/.345/.525 (.870 OPS). France also has 17 homers and 51 RBI through 95 games.
San Diego is a team that I wouldn’t want to face right now or down the stretch and if they can keep it up, they will be playing October baseball.
