The San Diego Padres have now scored two runs in two games against the St. Louis Cardinals.
The San Diego Padres are just two games above .500 right now, and it’s not hard to figure out why. They continue to set new standards when it comes to offensive ineptness, with the latest example being the first two games of their three-game series against the St. Louis Cardinals, as they’ve now scored just two runs in the series.
Manager Craig Stammen is forced to watch all this on a nightly basis, and at this point it looks a lot like a lowlight video that’s been stuck on repeat.
“There was a lot of empty innings where we just didn’t have anything going on,” Stammen said in a piece written by Jeff Jones of MLB.com. “[Andre Pallante] threw well. We’ve just got to be a little bit better against him, and fight him a little harder earlier in the game and get that pitch count up so that we can make even more progress later in the game.”
One player who’s taking a different approach is outfielder Samad Taylor, who brings speed to the table along with a willingness to execute the fine points of small ball. He’s provided a spark with some speed on the bases, and Taylor also does a good job of putting the ball in play.
“It’s hard when we’ve had multiple 1-2-3 innings,” Taylor said, as Jones noted that the Padres have turned in 14 such innings in their 18 turns at bat through the first two games of the series. “You try to just battle in the box to get our pitcher some rest on the bench and then just go from there, but over the last couple days we’ve had quite a few 1-2-3 innings. But we’ll keep grinding, and it’ll turn around.”
That’s starting to sound optimistic to a fault given that this has been going on for weeks now. The Padres got a break against a Baltimore Orioles staff that struggles to put together a string of good games, but the Cardinals pitchers have been throwing straikes and getting ahead, and they feature plus defense at nearly every position.
“It gets to the point where it’s a little frustrating, and we’ve got to do something about it,” Stammen said. “I know the guys are putting in all the work early. We’re doing every little possible thing we can do to break out of this and get our hitters hitting, but so far we haven’t figured it out yet.”
