Padres are freefalling with no end in sight

Losers of five in a row, the Padres have a ton of issues with the offense and in the bullpen. Both were supposed to be strengths this year.

After the Padres took the first two games of the Dodgers series, it felt like they were about to take control of the NL West. However, it’s been anything but that, having lost five straight games, including a sweep in Arizona over the weekend.

The Friars fell to 11-12 on the season, and consistently scoring runs has seemed like a monumental task as of late thanks to several black holes in the lineup. The Padres badly need to address the catcher position.

Austin Hedges and Francisco Mejia are a combined 7-for-75 on the year. In case you weren’t aware, that is horrible. I doubt Luis Torrens will do much better, but it’s worth a try at this point. The other alternative is to bring up Luis Campusano, but that seems like a long shot as well.

Trading for a catcher, like Salvador Perez, may not be the best idea either, especially if the Padres don’t turn things around before the August 31 deadline.

Tommy Pham returned to the lineup, as the team’s DH, after leaving Saturday’s game with cramping in his calves. He went 1-for-4, but he’s 3-for-26 over the last seven days. Looking around the rest of the order, Manny Machado has had difficulty getting it going in year two. Trent Grisham has tailed off after a hot start, and both Edward Olivares and Jorge Mateo are struggling massively.

It doesn’t help that Wil Myers left Saturday’s game as well, so things could continue to look ugly for a bit. And to make matters worse, the bullpen that was ranked as second-best in the league before the regular season has a 6.24 ERA as a group.

The Padres were able to claw their way back from a 2-0 deficit on Sunday, but Emilio Pagan served up a three-run bomb to give the Diamondbacks the lead. They are without Kirby Yates for an unknown period of time, but Craig Stammen, Pierce Johnson, Luis Perdomo, Javy Guerra, and Pagan have all looked shaky at best.

The team did call up Adrian Morejon on Sunday, but the issues go beyond inserting one new player, and one that has just eight innings of MLB experience.

The Padres will travel to Texas for a two and two series with the Rangers. Zach Davies will try to right the ship for the Friars, facing Jordan Lyles, who has a 6.06 ERA on the year.