2 Padres who've earned an apology from their doubters, and 1 not quite there

The San Diego Padres are a team that deserves no apologies from their fan base. Fans have packed Petco Park all season long only to watch this team go 32-34 66 games into the season. While they've played a bit better of late winning four of their last five, the Padres are still 8.5 games back of the first place Dodgers while sitting on the outside looking in for a Wild Card spot.

San Diego has had a handful of players perform up to their standards. Josh Hader has been excellent, and really the entire bullpen has been mostly solid. Fernando Tatis Jr. has picked it up of late, Rougned Odor has been serviceable, but there aren't many other players even worth complimenting.

This team has created its own doubters because of their struggles. Two players fans have doubted have given them reasons to apologize while a third is on his way, but not quite there yet.

1) San Diego Padres pitcher Michael Wacha has earned an apology from his doubters

Things couldn't have started out much worse for new Padre Michael Wacha. San Diego inked him to a four-year deal following a great year in Boston only for Wacha to post an ERA of 6.75 in April. He had one great start in Atlanta but had four poor to awful starts sandwiched in between. His rough start gave him plenty of doubters, myself included.

Ever since the calendar turned to May, Wacha has been a completely different pitcher. In his seven starts since May 2nd, Wacha has a 1.05 ERA in 42.2 innings of work. No, that's not a typo.

Wacha has allowed earned runs in three of those seven starts. This includes outings against solid teams like the Twins, Red Sox, Yankees, and Mariners.

Thanks to his dominant month and a half, Wacha has lowered his season ERA from 6.75 at the end of April to 3.18 after his six dominant innings against the Mariners.

The Padres are 8-4 in Wacha's starts and it's easy to see why. This team has looked lost for much of the year with him, they'd be way further out of it without him. He's the one guy they can depend on right now to give them a great outing each and every time out no matter the opponent or location.