Padres' pitching needs come into focus as veteran struggles

Yu Darvish is the one. The ace in the Friars' clubhouse that the team, and the city itself, can rally around. True, every ace has a game where they're off their mark. Location misses, velocity dips, and pitches that usually move, don't. Unfortunately for Darvish and the Padres, who are looking to upgrade at the trade deadline, that outing took place on Thursday evening in St. Louis, and it was not a pleasurable experience.

There were positives though. In a gallant effort to turn the tides, the offense had their bats swinging in double time after Darvish gave up seven runs in the first two innings. The byline pivot was about to turn from "Darvish and Padres in trouble" to "Padres' bats bail out Darvish." Despite the offensive effort, the Padres fell short.

Falling to the Cardinals in a high scoring affair (9-7) when all eyes are on President of Baseball Operations, A.J. Preller, to pull the trigger on moving Dylan Cease to plug other holes, became that much more worrisome. No pun intended, but perhaps the Padres should issue a ceasefire.

Maybe Preller can do the ultimate, plug holes while retaining starting pitcher depth. John Morosi suggests Preller and the Padres could move Cease for prospects, and then flip those prospects into acquiring former Cy Young winner Sandy Alcantara of the Miami Marlins. It sounds reasonable, but time is running out. The first couple dominos have fallen already as we approach the MLB trade deadline.

In his postgame interview with 97.3 The Fan, skipper Mike Shildt was complimentary of Darvish, "he did a pretty good job at getting to two strikes tonight, he just made some mistakes with two strikes." If anyone can shake off one bad outing, the wily Darvish can. Shildt confirmed that "everything is trending in a very normal Yu Darvish manner." That's an awfully rosy synopsis.

One thing is certain, the Friars can use a win, trade, or both. They're 5-5 in their last 10 and are five games back in the division. Darvish has a 9.18 ERA over his first four starts and the road ahead doesn't get any easier. Although the Friars return to Petco Park next week, the New York Mets are on deck for a three-game NL dogfight. So how will long will Shildt ride Darvish?