San Diego Padres: Dangerous Week Ahead

The San Diego Padres have dropped five straight, and they need to turn their fortunes around immediately or it could be time to call it quits on 2017.

Sound dramatic? Maybe a bit, especially considering that the San Diego Padres are just 15 games into a 162 game season, and expectations were low to begin with. But when the club rattled off two consecutive divisional series victories and evened their record at 5-5, some of us fans were thinking what is admittedly quite possibly irrational; the Padres might not be half bad.

Of course, this early in any season, every team is still in postseason contention as far as the standings are concerned. While every expert may laugh, what are Padre fans supposed to do, give up on the season?

Of course not, which is why their was a glimmer of hope for a moment. Unfortunately, this moment appears to be long gone.

The Padres just lost five very ugly games in a row. Four of these came at the hands of the Atlanta Braves, and any loss to Atlanta is an ugly one, and the fifth came Tuesday night at Petco Park, a miserable contest which ended in an 11-2 Diamondbacks victory.

San Diego now has an opportunity to redeem themselves at home, but they have quite a hole to dig themselves out of in order to alleviate the pain of this losing streak.

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As far as contention is concerned, whatever hope of it is left, this week is a defining week. San Diego has five games remaining at home before they hit the road again, two against Arizona and three against the Miami Marlins this weekend. Continuing this slide by losing four of the next five would leave the Padres at 6-14, going away from their home park. Even the most optimistic of fans would have a hard time spinning this into “just a rough start”.

But if the Padres take four of the next five games, very possible based on pitching matchups and the mere fact that the club has played so much better in front of their home fans, they would all of a sudden be 9-11. As low as expectations are, a team just two games under .500 in April is in the mix, like it or not. Even if it isn’t the intention of fans to compete for a division title, there will at least be that glimmer of hope that if the Padres get hot……..

Next: Padres Face Arizona and Miami in Upcoming Homestand

And for the dreamer Padre fans, getting back towards the .500 mark will give them a reason to dream. But if the Padres slip further and further away, even this group won’t feel the need to watch with an eye towards contention. This week, as early as it is, we could begin seeing fans drop off if the San Diego can’t get it turned around. It is indeed a dangerous week, a critical week for Padres baseball.