San Diego Padres: Week #2 Recap

Recapping all of the action from the second week of San Diego Padres baseball in 2017. While the week started very well in Colorado, it ended miserably in Atlanta.

The harsh reality of being a fan of a young team like the San Diego Padres has begun to hit fans. While the season started with a promising stretch of ten games, inconsistency is beginning to set in.

This week, the Padres played six games, two three game sets away from Petco Park. The week was not a complete loss, as the club pitched exceptionally and played well enough to overcome the Colorado Rockies and take two of three at Coors Field. But unfortunately, the taste left as the week concludes is far from how it felt to be playing .500 baseball.

The week started with the first real adversity on the injury front for the Padres in 2017, as right-handed offseason acquisition Trevor Cahill was placed on the 10-day disabled list for a strained back. Somewhat surprisingly, the rotation was able to recover from this thanks to a strong Zach Lee start and solid performances from relievers such as Miguel Diaz, who earned the victory on Monday.

The rest of the series in Colorado went very well, as even though the Padres lost a tight battle on Tuesday by a final of 3-2, they pitched well all throughout and just couldn’t come up with the big hit. This is understandable, and certainly tolerable, as the team came back with a shutout win in Wednesday’s rubber game, anchored by a four run rally in the first inning.

With the Padres taking two of three from the Rockies on the road, they improved their record to 5-5, a better start than experts were anticipating. They also had won two series in a row, both against divisional opponents. This was the goal, and fans were riding high entering the club’s mid road trip off day on Thursday.

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Then, San Diego traveled to Atlanta. The Braves, coming in a miserable 2-6, had no intention of rolling over at home even against a maturing Padres team.

The Braves won the first three game of the series, dealing blows to starters Clayton Richard and Cahill returning from the DL. In total, San Diego was outscored 22-6 in the series, a poor showing from all units.

The good news is that the Padres will return home this week, but the bad news is that they now enter Monday’s series finale in Atlanta 5-8 despite feeling good about their chances against the Braves.

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Is this sort of hiccup early in the season any shock though? Of course not. Fans new that it would only be a matter of time before the young roster experienced a bump in the road, and this unfortunately came at the hands of the lowly Atlanta Braves. A number of factors could be to blame, including a possible lack of concentration, the starters all of a sudden lacking command, and the hitters becoming much too aggressive and preoccupied with coming up with the huge hit.

What is for certain though is that inexperience is a major factor, and this young roster is going to need to get themselves back in order if they want to keep the season from slipping away.

It was a solid week statistically once again for Yangervis Solarte, Ryan Schimpf, and Wil Myers, who hit for the second cycle in franchise history against the Rockies. Hunter Renfroe and Austin Hedges both had a bit of a down week, but their progress is still evident.

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The bottom line is, the Padres are clearly making strides individually. The difficult part will be putting the team together and getting them to compete with some of baseball’s best. Fans ought to hold out hope that this will happen, but they must still be realistic, knowing that rocky weeks like this past one are inevitable.