San Diego Padres Need to Beat Up on Miami, Avenge Loss in Opener

The San Diego Padres, as mediocre as they may turn out to be, are within striking distance of at least making things exciting. They need to fry the Fish after yesterday’s loss.

A nice stretch of games over the last few weeks was a bit soured by losing two-of-three to the Los Angeles Dodgers over the weekend, but the San Diego Padres were coming home to face the lowly Marlins for a four-game set on Monday. Things were looking up.

Not quite. Sure, maybe Eric Lauer did “cr*p the bed“, and the Padres bats never really got hot against a surprisingly effective Caleb Smith. The Marlins’ 26-year-old lefty pitched seven impressive innings, allowing one run on four hits, walking one and striking out four.

As of yesterday’s game, only three San Diego Padres batters are hitting over .300 for the season: A.J. Ellis (.310), Wil Myers (.300) and Travis Jankowski (.326). Myers hasn’t played in a month and Ellis and Jankowski are fairly new to having regular at-bats. This is not viable.

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Padres offense needs to show up more consistently

Things needed to go into hyperdrive starting yesterday; seriously.

The Friars can’t afford to lose games like yesterday’s to a team that’s also in their respective cellar but is in no way, shape, or form better than the Padres.

The Friars need to snap back into form tonight and, quite frankly, they need to take the next three against these Marlins.

I’m not saying that the Padres need to win these games to stay in “contention”, because that’s simply not the case.

They need to win the next three games in order to keep these young guys feeling confident in themselves. They need to win to keep the mindset of this team in the right place. The second that it feels like a lost season to the players, the Padres’ year will take that form.

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Some fans may already believe that to be true, but there are still victories to be had this season; material wins and moral ones, too.