San Diego Padres win first series since All-Star break: 3 takeaways

The San Diego Padres won their first series since the All-Star break against their division rivals. Here are 3 takeaways from the series win.

It’s been a while, but the San Diego Padres have finally tallied the win column again.

That is, the series win column.

The Friars entered the All-Star break on July 7 on a roll, taking three out of four against the Los Angeles Dodgers and sitting pretty at 45-45. Spirits were good, expectations were up, and the hype was limitless.

Unfortunately, things began to crumble almost as soon as they were built up.

The Padres crashed back down to earth pretty quickly, failing to win a series and even two games in a row coming into this tilt against the Colorado Rockies. They fell nine games below .500 for the first time in 2019 and the wild card spot quickly slipped out of reach. Frustration was at its peak and disappointment abounded.

That was before the Rockies came to town. Things took a turn for the better as the Padres gave us a glimpse of what made them so exciting to watch in the first half of the season.

Though they couldn’t complete the four-game sweep, we need to keep things in perspective and remember that 2019 was never our year to compete. Seeing the Padres produce offensively, unleash strong starting pitching, and have fun on the field was a refreshing sight to see.

With that said, we’ve got three takeaways from the divisional series win.

Bullpen is still a problem

The Padres bullpen is in the middle of the pack this season — they’re ranked 18th in the league in relievers’ ERA at 4.62.

After a solid few weeks in which that dipped as low as 3.34, the bullpen reared its ugly head once more against the Rockies. They allowed nine earned runs in relief for a 5.79 ERA over the four-game match up.

Craig Stammen gets the blame this time around, but it’s an issue that permeates the entire pen. He’s had a solid season (and career, for that matter), though it’s been a rough couple days for the 10-year veteran. He gave up four earned runs in 1.2 innings pitched in relief, both of which squandered a Padres lead.

The bullpen was responsible for several losses over the the first half of the season too; expect things to stay ugly at least until the end of this year in that department.

After the long-awaited return of José Castillo to the pen was cut short with a ligament tear, along with Adrián Morejon’s departure to the 10-day IL, the back-end is lacking some serious support outside of Kirby Yates and early phenoms Andrés Muñoz and Michel Báez.

There are some good things to consider though. First, if the bullpen is the biggest problem the Padres have this season, then I’ll take it. Pitching will hopefully be a strength for the Friars as younger prospects develop, return, and make an impact in the coming years.

Furthermore, despite the 4.62 ERA on the season, the pen has a 4.04 FIP that ranks 5th in the league. Surprisingly, they also lead the MLB with a 3.95 xFIP.

This suggests that the bullpen is doing a decent job of stopping runs — instead, it’s the defense that isn’t helping out as it should. The stats actually indicate that the bullpen deserves more credit than it gets.

That’s a positive sign moving forward. If the Padres somehow find themselves closer to playoff contention come September though, the relief rotation will need to pick itself up if they hope to make a last-minute push.

And yes, you read that correctly. I did just reference the Padres in the 2019 playoffs.

Anything can happen

“Looks like playoffs are back on the menu, boys!”

That’s what was circulating around the community when the Padres took the series from the Rockies on Saturday. That first series win since the All-Star break certainly lifted the spirits around the fanbase, and rightfully so. Perhaps they’re back in the playoff mix.

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Or perhaps not.

They’ve gone 5-5 in their last 10 games and are still 6.5 games back from a wild card spot. The short three-game winning streak didn’t do much because other contending teams kept winning.

That’s what good teams do, and in such a crowded NL race this season, there are a lot of good teams vying for one of those playoff spots.

It’s hard to pin down one consensus pick for the wild card this season. The Washington Nationals and St. Louis Cardinals currently hold that spot, and considering how close the top three teams in the NL Central are, it’s likely that one of them will snag a place in the dance.

So that leaves one spot left for any of nine teams to grab.

At this point, however, the Padres don’t control their own destiny. 6.5 games back is definitely possible to come back from, but they’d need some help from the teams ahead along the way.

In the next month, San Diego will play the Tampa Bay Rays (69-50), Philadelphia Phillies (60-57), Boston Red Sox (62-58), and Dodgers (79-41). That’s a tough crowd to get through if they want to gain some ground in the playoff race.

Anything can happen though. The unknown and improbabilities in sports is what gets viewers hooked in the first place. If the Padres can play like they did against the Rockies through the rest of the season, they definitely have a chance.

For now, expectations should continue to be tempered as they relate to our record though. Remember that 2019 was never our year, so building off of and improving on the 2018 season, in which the Padres won only 66 games, is a much bigger priority. It seems like we’re on pace for that right now, which should be considered progress as is.

For complete coverage of the San Diego Padres 2019 season, continue following Friars on Base all season long.