3 reasons San Diego Padres fans can be hopeful for July and August

When San Diego Padres fans woke up on Monday, June 19, they must have been feeling pretty good about their team. It was still mid-June, a .500 record was as close as the San Diego Zoo is to the airport, slugger Juan Soto was finally back on track and the Padres had just won two out of three against the top team in the league in the Tampa Bay Rays. The hometown team was on its way north to take on in-state rival San Francisco with optimism in their bats and new-found fight in their hearts. Well, those highs lasted about as long as the morning ocean air before burning off and giving way to the southern California sun.

Since that likely sunny morning about two weeks ago, San Diego went on a disappointing 2-9 and rode a six-game skid to close out June. The losing streak was low-lighted by getting swept in Pittsburgh to a Pirates team that was on its own downward spiral, possibly breathing life into the Steel City faithful.

Heading into July, the Padres sat at fourth place in the NL West, 11.5 games behind division leader Arizona. If there was ever a time for Padres fans to be thankful for the Colorado Rockies, I'm thinking now is one if those times. After all, without them, San Diego would be in dead last. Along with Colorado, the Padres can only boast a better record in the NL than the St. Louis Cardinals, New York Mets and Washington Nationals. The late June swoon put San Diego further behind in the Wild Card race, 9.0 games out heading into July and needing to leapfrog six teams over the next three months to grab that last spot.

So things look pretty bleak in Padres Nation. With July 4 just around the corner and the dog days of summer about to begin, what exactly do fans have to hang their hat on in a season that seems to be slipping away faster than a teenager's summer in August? Here are three things.