Thar she blows! A win for the Padres—the first one in the better part of two weeks. San Diego finally snapped its losing streak after a brutal ten-game stretch. Amazingly, they are still in first place, albeit only by one game at this point.
All year, people have wondered whether the Padres’ kiddie corps can keep it up. They have been highly dependent on cheap and inexperienced pitchers, so I’ve had to wonder if the pressure of a division race is getting to them. Likewise, the Padres lineup features Adrian Gonzalez as the primary force, suggesting that the team as a whole has been overachieving.
The Padres have dropped the ball when it comes to running away with the NL West, but they may yet eke out the title.
Still, no one expected them to suddenly lose ten in a row. It appeared to be a Murphy’s Law kind of stretch: When they scored five runs, they gave up 11. When they scored one or two, they gave up three. The streak included four losses by two runs or less. So there was some bad luck in there too.
But can they recover? It won’t take long to find out. After two more games with the Dodgers, the Pads play an enormous four-game series at home against the San Francisco Giants, who have been nibbling away at them in the NL West standings. This will be the biggest series in the young careers of many Padres and a good litmus test as to whether this recent win drought will prove to be a stumble or the beginning of the end this season.
Remember that Tampa had a young team overcome a similar dry spell back in 2008. My prediction is that the Padres will overcome this recent debacle and win the NL West… but I do think that their youth will catch up to them in the playoffs.
