San Diego Padres Simulated Season Week 7: A Major Improvement

We continue our simulated 2020 season of the San Diego Padres on MLB The Show as we move into week seven where the team bounced back in a big way.

After a rough week six that saw our San Diego Padres get dismantled by the Los Angeles Dodgers, the team got some much needed momentum back in week seven going 5-2 on the week with a sweep of the Chicago White Sox.

The one downside to this week is that the Padres did lose another series to the Dodgers.

Joey Lucchesi stared out week seven with an eight-inning, two-hit performance against the Dodgers. Fernando Tatis Jr. went 4-for-5 with a home run, 3 runs scored, and 3 RBI in that game.

Then they lost a one-run game to the Dodgers and dropped the series finale 7-5 despite another brilliant performance from Zach Davies in which he gave up just 1 run on 3 hits and 1 walk over 8 inning with 7 strikeouts.

But the bullpen blew it giving up 6 runs in the bottom of the ninth.

Tommy Pham, Eric Hosmer combined for 5 hits and 5 runs scored in their series-opening win over the White Sox, and Chris Paddack had a solid start.

It Jurickson Profar who  led the way in the next game, and overall he had a pretty solid week — as did Eric Hosmer who hit a home run in this game.

Lucchesi had another impressive performance in week seven striking out 10 White Sox in 6 innings.

And then they opened up the Cubs series with a win thanks to a brilliant performance on the mound by Garret Richards who gave up just 3 hits over 6.1 innings with 8 strikeouts.

Team Totals and Standings

At 26-18, the Padres have now claimed sole possession of second place in the NL West jumping over the Arizona Diamondbacks, but they still remain seven games back of the Dodgers.

However, they are tied with the Philadelphia Phillies for the top NL Wild Card spot.

The team’s batting average went up from .238 last week to .249, which is a big jump at this part of the season in just one wek.

Pitching, particularly the starting pitching, was much better in week seven, but the team ERA remained about the same at 3.72.

Believe it or not, Hosmer leads the team in batting average at .300 after another good week.

Tatis Jr. is tied for the team lead in home runs at 12 with Manny Machado.

Myers is hitting a solid .283 with 6 home runs, while Pham is starting to pick things up as Trent Grisham cools off.

On the pitching side, Davies continues to lead the staff with a 1.62 ERA in 55.2 innings with 44 strikeouts.

Richards is the only other start with an ERA under four at the moment, but the others are steadily improving.

Again, the bullpen has been a big disappointment. Emilio Pagan remains the only consistent reviler with a 1.25 ERA in 21.2 innings.

As we get into June I’ll start putting out ideas for players we could target in trades. The good news is the Padres are certainly in the playoff hunt, but they could definitely use some upgrades in certain areas — specifically second base and the bullpen (surprisingly).