Padres Remain One Of MLB's Hottest Teams

The San Diego Padres may have dropped their first series in two weeks to the down-and-out New York Mets, but the team is still one of the hottest in baseball.

The Padres fought hard against New York but lost two close games in the opener (2-1) and finale (4-2) at Citi Field. Both clubs scored eight runs apiece in the series, but the Mets were able to outlast a hungry Padres team.

San Diego is 12-6 in August and has won 20 of their last 32 games to propel themselves back into a wild card spot with 34 games remaining in the regular season. For a good chunk of the season, the Padres had the worst offense in the sport, failing to manufacture enough runs to offset a thin starting rotation.

It’s still weird to say that, considering the star power and pop within the lineup, but baseball is a weird sport. Right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr., third baseman Manny Machado, center fielder Jackson Merrill and first baseman Ty France have carried the load but the former three had extended struggles that put the Padres behind the proverbial 8-ball.

But over the last six weeks or so, those guys have stepped up in a major way and have played more like the players they were signed to be. Merrill has been one of the best hitters since the All-Star break, Machado is hitting for power and Tatis is a catalyst at the top of the lineup night-in and night-out.

Their efforts have put the Padres inside the top 10 of ESPN’s latest power rankings, moving up to No. 9.

“You can pinpoint the nadir as July 10, a couple of days before the All-Star break. At that point, San Diego was on pace to score only 631 runs this season and to be outscored by 78,” Bradford Doolittle wrote Thursday. “Now, the Padres have upped that offensive pace to 690 and have amazingly pushed their scoring margin into positive territory.”

Doolittle mentioned that the team is top five in scoring and OPS during that span, a nice stretch of dominance that has the Padres no longer on the outside looking in. Now, San Diego controls its own destiny and if the team continues playing great baseball down the stretch, they will be a tough team to jump in the standings.

With how great their bullpen is, the Padres are a team that will be feared in a postseason series.