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

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

Friar of the Week

This week’s Friar of the Week goes to Yangervis Solarte. He hit the game-tying hit in Saturday’s eventual loss off of the bench and delivered a crucial two run homer on Sunday to power the Padres. He has made three errors but two were at first base which is a position he has not played at the major league level and only once in the minors until this year. He might continue to spell Yonder Alonso at lefties and even help out Jedd Gyorko with his offensive struggles at second base. Even at first base he did still make a fine defensive play on a line drive from Anthony Rizzo‘s in Sunday’s game.

This week the Padres head out to Coors Field in Colorado for four against the Rockies before coming back to Petco Park and hosting the Dodgers for the weekend series. This team really appears to clicking on all cylinders right now. While I bring out some concerns about the bullpen, the other reality is that most of their starting pitchers are delivering at least 5-6 innings of work every start which is huge. Jedd Gyorko’s struggles are easy to overlook while Wil Myers is hitting close to .300, Matt Kemp and Yonder Alonso are holding steady around .350, and Justin Upton and Will Middlebrooks each have 3 home runs. Brandon Morrow has been excellend in his couple of starts and if Despaigne can continue to fill in for Ian Kennedy based on his first two appearances, the depth looks strong.

I also believe that James Shields start on Friday should be admired by the aspiring aces of the staff in Cashner and Ross. Shields battled through a little bit of a rough game for him, but he was able to make the pitches he needed to make and get through his 6 innings of work.

Last Week Prediction: 5-1 Actual: 4-2.

Current Record: 8-5

Current Standings: 2nd place, 1.5 GB from Dodgers

Weekly Prediction: 4-3

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