Padres Cash In on Pitching Health

Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

Summary

The Padres do not have a whole lot left to play for in the 2014 season. They are long out of the playoff race, thanks mostly in part to a final 7-game losing streak to start the month that put even third place in some jeopardy. However, that doesn’t mean they aren’t allowed to win games. Andrew Cashner fired off two gems this week, and the offense scored some runs as players make the push for the next season. All in all they won SIX of Seven games this week and now with just two more wins would match their win total from the 2012 and 2013 seasons. Is this team better than those teams? The record hopefully will say so. As this season winds down for the San Diego Padres, this past week will be one that might just stand out for them, as they swept the playoff bound San Francisco Giants and even took three of four from the Philadelphia Phillies. Youngster Robbie Erlin returned to the rotation with a victory, and they even did it by scoring over the magical 4 runs in 5 games.

 This is the time of the season where players are playing for themselves and the next season, and the Padres are showing some fight in that regard. Cameron Maybin is making headlines pining for more playing time, Yasmani Grandal wants to play catcher more often, and while the complaining is annoying; I’ll take being upset over no emotion at all. Bud Black appeared to turn in his manager card early in the month, but now has the team fired up and playing good baseball. Last week to go, but before we go there, let’s review one of the Padres best weeks.

Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

Phillies Recap

Monday night was nearly a special night. Andrew Cashner fired off his second 2 hit shutout of the season, this time only allowing a controversial bunt single in the 5th inning but still finishing off the gem with just two hits. He had a no hitter until the bunt single. For my take, it was a 1-0 game with a massive shift, so I don’t blame Dominic Brown for breaking one of this unwritten rules of baseball for bunting in that situation. Maybe if it was a 8-0 Padres lead, or later in the game, but not a 1-0 game. The Phillies have nearly the exact same record as the Padres entering and leaving their series with them, and both teams are just fighting to finish the season and see what next year will bring.

 Alexi Amarista was the offensive hero on Tuesday, who might make the Padres think about dumping oft-suspended and injured Everth Cabrera, homering, doubling, and singling in the victory. That with a another legal cloud still hanging over Mr. Cabrera. Ian Kennedy pitched six innings allowing 3 runs, striking out 7. Nick Vincent and Frank Garces picked up holds, and Kevin Quackenbush picked up his 4th save despite allowing a run in the ninth. Rookie Rymer Liriano, who overall has struggled, did go 3-4 in the victory as well.

 Wednesday local boy Cole Hamels turned in another standard performance for him. He is now 9-7 with a 2.47 ERA and it will be interesting to see if he is kept by the Phillies next season or traded somewhere else to fully rebuild. While the Phillies are holding onto him, Cliff Lee, Chase Utley and others is beyond me, as this team is clearly too old to win again. Eric Stults hung in there until the 5th before falling apart for his 17th loss on the season. I still argue he has pitched certainly much better than his 7-17 record shows, and hope the Padres keep him in their plans for 2015 at least as a reliable arm that does not get hurt. We shall see.

Thursday they capped off the series in delightful style, scoring 7 runs in Robbie Erlin’s return to the mound. Amarista added his second homer in as many nights (5 on the year), forgotten Will Venable hit his 7th, and Seth Smith and Yasmani Grandal each went 2-4.  The story though was Erlin. At the start of the year, he was looked at being the 5th starter, and pitched pretty well in that role. Then he got hurt and hadn’t been seen since. Thursday though he pitched 6 solid innings, striking out 4, walking NONE, and only allowing 1 run. It was a great way to finish out the series, but the Padres were just getting warmed up for the weekend.

The Giants were swept by the Padres at Petco over the weekend. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

Giants Recap

It was the Giants coming to town when the fun really started for the Padres. Though Padres fans would rather have played spoiler against the Dodgers than the Giants, there is no love lost between these now arrogant Giants fans who just say “2010” and “2012” when you start taunting them. I really hope the Dodgers don’t win the World Series this year because that would make them even more unbearable than they are already.

Odrisamer Despaigne came into the majors with a flourish, starting out 3-0 with some dominating outings, before getting the closest to a no-hitter of any other Padres pitcher this year. He has struggled some since, but did good enough on Friday to get the 7 inning victory allowing zero runs. He has only allowed 1 earned run in 20 innings against the Giants. Yondervis Solarte led off and went 2-4 in the victory, with Cameron Maybin and Amarista driving in two runs each to pace the offense in the 5-0 victory.

Saturday night Andrew Cashner again flexed his pitching muscles and his bat. He tripled and singled at the plate, in addition of course to 8 strong innings striking out 7. He pitched into the 9th but allowed a homer and single, bringing in the Quack Attack who allowed two hits but closed it out for the victory. Cashner can do it all, and his health is key to 2015. More on that later however. The Padres won 3-2.

 The Padres closed out the week Sunday with a bang. They started slow, and the game was just 1-0 Padres threw 5 1/3. However, they busted out the sticks in the bottom of the 6th as they scored 5 runs and chased Giants starter Ryan Vogelsong, though two Giants errors also plagued his boxscore line. Kennedy pitched into the 7th before Garces, Nick Vincent, and Joaquin Benoit finished things off for the night. The final score was 8-2.

Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

Key Performances

Andrew Cashner, how we missed you this year. As happy as I was to see Andrew Cashner get two wins this week, go into the 9th inning in both games he pitched, and even have an OBP of 1.000 with a triple in a game, it got me thinking…

Imagine if he had made just ten more starts this season. So 28 instead of just the 18 so far. He has gone over 118 innings in those starts, a great average of 6.5 innings, though I would guess his average start would be more on the 7-8 inning side if you throw out a few really bad ones. Let’s say the Padres win 6 of those 10 starts. Maybe not quite a playoff team because of it, but we are then talking about a team above .500. It’s simplistic to look at it this way, but is it? If Robbie Erlin makes a few starts that we don’t have to give to Despaigne or Eric Stults, does the record tell a different story? Can Jesse Hahn duplicate next season the promise he showed this season, and will Tyson Ross have a 2015 to beat or equal his 2014.

Certainly the three headed monster of Cashner, Ross, and Hahn is one Padres fans can hope will last a long time, with Ian Kennedy taking the veteran role and Robbie Erlin holding down the 5th spot until possibly Matt Wisler? It was great to see Cashner at full strength this week. I just hope we get to see more it next year too.