The Week That Was For the Padres: April 27th – May 3rd

Padres amazed at their inability to hit the baseball. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

The Padres have not won three straight games yet this season.  This past week started well, winning Sunday’s game against the Nationals 4-2 to even that series, then starting off the series against first place San Francisco with a dramatic win Monday night, thanks to Rene Rivera.

After that, things went south rather quickly, losing four straight.  Typically, only one of the games was a blowout, with Eric Stult’s effectiveness one of the major questions facing the Padres as May begins.  However, the other three games exemplified the BIGGEST weakness of this team: the offense.

In Wednesday’s, Friday’s, and Saturday’s games, they lost by a total of 4 runs while scoring a combined 5.  When you allow 9 runs over 3 games you expect to win at least one of them, but the Padres have proven mighty ineffective at getting that done so far this season.

The positive continues to be the bullpen.  In their win against the Giants, Tyson Ross struggled some, and left the game with runners on base and the lead down to one.  Alex Torres came in and cleaned up.  The rest of the night was nearly automatic, as the bullpen continues to lead the league in ERA and make the games shorter – if we can just get the lead first.

On Saturday night, they toyed with the idea of a 9th inning comeback.  Thanks to a Jedd Gyorko sighting and another Cameron Maybin double, they had the tying run in scoring position…and failed.  We look for the positive, hoping that the 9th inning rally is a sign of things to come for Gyorko and Maybin.  We can only hope.

Question Mark of the Week?

Where does Eric Stults fit in for this team long-term?  Is Stults another Clayton Richard with one good season before devolving into mediocrity?  While there is no back-up at this point, Stults is good enough to nearly always get you 5-6 innings. Last year,  he was the Padres pitcher with the most wins.  May will be a key month for him to keep his spot in the rotation and show the veteran presence they were hoping for.

Current Record:  13-18

Current NL West Ranking:

6.5 GB of 1st place Giants