By Keith Antigiovanni
The San Diego Padres start a nine-game road trip tonight against the American League (AL) West leading Houston Astros at Minutemaid Park. The Padres (66-75) currently sit in fourth place in the National League (NL) West, almost eliminated from the division race and 7 games back for the final Wild Card with 21 games left in the season.
The recent homestand was nominally successful as the Friars’ went 4-3 against the San Francisco Giants and Philadelphia Phillies but needed a more successful home stand than that to get back into the playoff race. The home record has improved to 39-36 overall but continues around the .500 mark.
Their opponent tonight, the Houston Astros (80-61), are coming off a three-game sweep over AL West rival Texas Rangers on the road. The Astros outscored the Rangers a combined 39-10 in the series on the road. Houston’s home record is similar to the Padres at 35-34 but unlike the Padres, Houston has posted an impressive road record (45-27) which included the three-game sweep in Arlington earlier this week.
The Padres continue their offensive woes as the lineup that is considered powerful entering the season continues to hit under.300. Xander Bogaerts now leads the club at .272, followed by previous leader Ha-Seong Kim (.271) but the big three, Manny Machado (.252), Fernando Tatis Jr (.263) and Juan Soto (.258) continue to struggle at the plate. Meanwhile after his struggles most of the season, Astros’ second baseman Jose Altuve had a breakout series this week collecting 7 hits and 5 home runs.
While San Diego’s offense continues to stagnate their pitching continues to excel in terms of runs allowed at 573, second best in the NL to the Atlanta Braves (91-48). The Braves have given up 2 fewer runs.
The Padres ace Blake Snell (12-9, 2.50 ERA) will be on the mound tonight against Astros’ Hunter Brown (10-10, 4.53), Christian Javier will start for the Padres on Saturday against JP France and on Sunday San Diego will have Seth Lugo the Astros have not yet named a starter for game 3.
Following the series in Houston, the Padres will return to the west coast to face the NL West leading Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium for three games then finish the trip in Oakland against the Athletics for three games. After the road trip the club returns to Petco Park for its’ final home stand of the season versus St. Louis and Colorado.
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