San Diego Padres week #9 recap

Recapping all of the action from one of the more exciting and encouraging weeks of San Diego Padres baseball thus far in 2017.

The ninth week of the San Diego Padres season was an encouraging one with the Padres starting off sweeping the Chicago Cubs at home with standout performances from pitchers Luis Perdomo and newcomer Dinelson Lamet as well as great bullpen work during the whole series.

There was good defense, timely hitting and strong crowd support for those games. Division leading Colorado took some of the luster off the homestand by taking 2 of the three games to end the week but the Friars finished with a 4-2 record and are tied with the San Francisco Giants in last place in the NL West.

Two Padres in particular had good offensive performances. Catcher Austin Hedges and right fielder Hunter Renfroe had hot bats. Renfroe had a double, 2 HR and 7 RBI for the week while Hedges clobbered a double, 3 HR and 7 RBI. Both had difficult starts to the season with Hedges going 0 for 24 to start the year and Renfroe striking out at an alarming pace. Both have since turned their seasons around with better at bats, more production and good defense at their positions.

First baseman Wil Myers continues to struggle at the plate, dropping his once torrid .330 average down to .260. He had 1 HR and 2 RBI with 8 strikeouts for the week.

Related Story: Padres week 8 recap

Perdomo pitched the third game of the Cubs series and threw seven innings, allowing three hits and one run with four strikeouts. His sinker is his dominant weapon and he should always get more ground ball outs than strike outs when he pitches, if he has his good stuff.

Lamet, on the other hand, has strikeout stuff and he pitched 5 innings in the second game of the series with 8 strikeouts and 2 runs allowed. As he adapts to major league hitters he should be able to be more efficient and go deeper into games.

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The Padres could easily have won another game in the Rockies series with improved starting pitching. As stated previously, the starting rotation has gotten inconsistent performances throughout the season and there has been no one pitcher stepping forward to lead the rotation into better starts. The games won have come largely from the bullpen shutting down opposing hitters.

No bullpen can pitch this many innings throughout the whole season and still hold up well. Either the starters need to go deeper into games or there will need to be changes made in the bullpen to preserve arms in the second half of the season.

Next: Padres Farm report, Part 2

Next up for our Friars is a quick road trip to Arizona then a home series versus the Kansas City Royals.