The San Diego Padres have been scuffling as of late and are now in third place of the National League West following its four-game losing streak.
The San Diego Padres were neck and neck with the Los Angeles Dodgers competing for first place in the National League West up until this past week, but a four-game losing streak has put the Padres 4.5 games behind its bitter rival.
The Padres were just swept in a three-game series against the Philadelphia Phillies and were shut out twice, scoring just three total runs. San Diego was outscored 10-3 and felt the wrath of NL Cy Young front-runner Cristopher Sanchez in the series finale.
Sanchez threw seven scoreless innings of six-hit ball with nine strikeouts to extend his scoreless streak to 44.2 innings. He didn’t allow a single run in the month of May.
The Padres actually got solid pitching from Griffin Canning, Randy Vasquez and Walker Buehler, a strength that wasn’t expected for this team coming into the season. The offense was expected to do a lot of the heavy lifting considering the starting rotation is thin from offseason departures and injuries, but San Diego’s offense hasn’t been anything to write home about.
According to The Athletic’s Dennis Lin, who referred to the Padres as either “the best bad team in baseball, or the worst good team,” San Diego is the first team since the 1985 Mets to win at least 31 of its first 54 games with an OPS of .655 or lower.
When your top stars – Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado and Jackson Merrill – aren’t pulling their weight, it puts immense pressure on the guys that aren’t expected to carry the load. Despite this, the Padres check into ESPN’s Week 9 Power Rankings at No. 7.
“The Padres have been keeping pace with the Dodgers in the NL West even though their rotation is shaky and their three best hitters – Manny Machado, Jackson Merrill and Fernando Tatis Jr. – are off to slow starts,” ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez wrote Thursday.
“The biggest reason they've kept up: Mason Miller, who was already solidified as the game's best closer and has since graduated to historic levels.”
Having the best closer in baseball and a great bullpen will certainly help keep the team afloat, and that’s what has happened. Miller’s 0.76 ERA in 23.2 innings of work contributes to the Padres’ third-best team bullpen ERA of 3.07, just behind the Dodgers (3.03) and Boston Red Sox (3.06).
Miller has struck out more than half the batters he has faced and has allowed just two earned runs this season.
“He was unhittable in April and has since been merely dominant -- and it's probably not going to get much worse than that. His fastball-slider combination is as explosive as it is indistinguishable.”
Given the underlying factors of the Padres, a 31-24 record and possession of a wild card spot sounds pretty good.
