Padres’ Week in Review: May 4th-10th

May 9, 2014; San Diego, CA, USA; San Diego Padres second baseman

(9) after hitting a grand slam during the sixth inning against the Miami Marlins at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports=

The Padres ran the gamut of baseball this week: Two walk-off wins, a couple extra inning losses, a couple blowouts and losing a blowout.

Baseball runs a 162-game season for a reason, and the Padres exercised their right to ups and downs.  The week began with a walk-off win Sunday in the ninth, but the game of the week was Monday night against the Royals.

In Monday’s game, they came back three times.  Three times.  Monday was one of those games when the Padres are making a run towards the post-season later this year, they will look and say, “That was a game our team came together.”

One troubling trend of the week was the 6 errors made – 3 by Everth Cabrera.  If this trend continues, it will be a struggle for a team that is still overall struggling to score runs.

On Thursday night,  Ian Kennedy threw an absolutely amazing game, tossing 7 innings and only allowing 1 run.  On top of that, he also homered and the game went into extra innings tied at 1.  In the 11th, the first two hitters were retired easily.  Then, Jedd Gyorko fumbled a routine grounder hit his way.  As a spectator in the stands, my stomach turned.  Up next?  Only the NL leader in home runs and RBI, Giancarlo Stanton.  As expected, he homered and the Padres couldn’t come back again.

Friday night was a great example of letting it all out.  Jedd Gyorko continued his resurgence as he smacked 2 home runs, including a grand slam, giving him three for the week.  To top it off, it was against phenom Jose Fernandez of the Marlins.

By the way, if you missed it, the Padres made headlines Wednesday with a dinosaur throwing out the first pitch.

Earlier this week, I predicted the Padres would win 4 games this week, and they ended up winning 4.

Cameron Maybin continues to hit well and is still over the .300 mark.  If Gyorko is indeed getting into the swing of things, Maybin hitting well, and Deno and Seth Smith continuing their early season success, things could begin looking up.

Ian Kennedy and Tyson Ross both pitched like aces this week.  Andrew Cashner has shown his qualities as ace this season, and Robbie Erlin tossed a good game as well.

With Chase Headley‘s return last night and offensive reinforcement Carlos Quentin  returning from rehab, just like that we have a full-blown baseball team.  Throw in some young pitchers like Casey Kelly and possibly Matt Wisler down the line, don’t count this team out yet.  The defense historically has been a strength, the pitching is stellar, and the offense is getting better by the day.

Record: 17-21

Standings: 7.5 GB of San Francisco

Player of the Week:

Jedd Gyorko.  3 home runs, 1 to tie the game and 1 a grand slam.  Nice job Jedd.  Though his error on Thursday literally cost the Padres the game, he also made several dazzling plays to his left this week.