Padres Week In Review: April 13-19th Starting Pitching Cruising

Apr 11, 2015; San Diego, CA, USA; San Diego Padres third baseman Yangervis Solarte (26) singles during the third inning against the San Francisco Giants at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

Opening Thoughts

 The Padres had a successful week, taking 2 of 3 from the Arizona Diamondbacks early and then 2 of 3 from the Cubs and newly called up wonderkind Kris Bryant. Matt Kemp got his first Padres home run of the young season and Yangervis Solarte continued to hit well wherever he could be put onto the field. Defensively he has been a bit of a liability. The starting pitching continued to excel, but the middle inning pitching has started to elicit some early question marks. Nick Vincent was sent down to AAA but his replacements Brandon Maurer and Rearick didn’t exactly shore things up as expected. While the back-end triumvirate of Dale Thayer, Joaquin Benoit and Craig Kimbrel has remained oustanding, help might be needed beyond that. Short term issue or cause for concern?

Offensively Wil Myers is still hitting lead-off and still hitting well while also not creating any question marks defensively in the outfield. Justin Upton continues to show how quickly he can change a game with his powerful home runs and Yonder Alonso is making people forget there was a position controversy at first base for the Padres.

While rumors still circulate that GM A.J. Preller is still looking for options at shortstop and second base, he has to be happy how a lot of his new imports are performing save Shawn Kelley in the bullpen; more on that later.

Click through the slideshow to see how the week went down the Padres and who wins this week’s Friar of the Week.

Next: Diamondbacks Series Recap