Week-in-Preview: Kansas City Royals And The Miami Marlins

has been hitting hot of late. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

Sunday, the Padres started off the week on the right foot with a walk-off infield single.  Hey, results don’t have to be pretty.

The Padres continue their home stand with 3 games against the Royals and a 4 game set against the Miami Marlins.

Up first are the Kansas City Royals, who currently sit at 14-16.  The Padres get a glimpse of the Royals future on Monday with Yordano Ventura, countering against Padres Eric Stults who hopes for a solid outing after getting shelled in San Francisco his last time out.

The Marlins are also proving to be viable contenders for the NL East title and wild card.  At 16-15, they are holding steady in baseball’s best division at the moment, with every teams over .500.  Everyone knows about what Jose Fernandez is doing this year, but Tom Koehler is also turning some heads with his own 3-2 record and 2.41 ERA.  Giancarlo Stanton leads a solid lineup who should be pretty impressive this week.

Padre Player to Watch

Cameron Maybin has been impressive in his return to the team.  He has 4 doubles in his 6 hits and is already at nearly half his plate appearances that he totaled last year.  While yet to homer or steal a base, he appears to be quite healthy.  He made a sensational catch on Saturday night to rob a home run and looks good except for a few mental miscues in his week back.

It is crazy to think that last year he only played in 14 Major League games.  I suppose a few mental lapses are bound to happen.  He is only 27 years old and a productive Cameron Maybin makes a huge difference in this Padres lineup.  It will be interesting to see what happens when Quentin does return(hopefully by next week) and how Maybin, Chris Denorfia, and slumping Will Venable play into the mix.  Can Quentin play first base?

Prediction:

The Padres offense still needs a lot of help and playing at home should provide some assistance. It’s important to keep this past weekends momentum going into these games.  Starting with Stults and Robbie Erlin is a little shaky, but lays things out nicely the rest of the way.  Going through Saturday and counting Sunday’s win already – I predict the Padres going 4-3 this week, after last week’s 2-4 debacle.