By Keith Antigiovanni
The San Diego Padres (75-78) have won 8 of its past 9 games, after a three-game sweep of the Colorado Rockies at Petco Park this week, however this current winning streak may be a case of “too little, too late” as they are 5 games out of the final Wild Card spot with only 9 games to go. However, another cliché’ comes to mind when describing the Padres season and that’s “It aint over till its over” from the late great Yogi Berra.
If the Padres hope to return to the playoffs for a consecutive season and third time in four seasons they need to only win out but must continue to get increased production from its lineup.
The “Big Four” (Bogaerts, Machado, Soto, Tatis) in the batting lineup has struggled for most of the season at the plate. Bogaerts overall average is .283 after being acquired as a free agent this past offseason has hit .500 (17 of 34), 4 runs batted in (RBI) and 2 homeruns (HR) in this winning streak while Machado (.248 season average) and Soto (.267 season average) each hit .424 (14 of 33), each with 16 RBI, and combined for 6 HR in this 9 game stretch while Tatis (.260 season average) is batting just under .300 (.297) collecting 6 RBI and 2 HR in that span.
The Padres have also struggled this season to win at home entering this homestand at only 39-36 and with the sweep improved its record to 42-36 but again it might be too little, too late with only three homes games to play this year.
The playoff system includes 6 teams from each league that advance to the postseason (3 division champions and the top 3 Wild Card teams). There are 3 teams sitting above the Padres that are currently out of the Wild Card spot as they trail the Miami Marlins by 4 games, the Cincinnati Reds by 3.5 games and the San Francisco Giants by 1.5 games. Basically, there are 7 teams competing for 3 playoff spots and the Padres are in 7th place with 9 games to go.
If the Padres are able to win the rest of their games the best record they can finish is 84-78 but other than the three game series next week against the Giants, they do not play either the Marlins nor the Reds and none of the these teams will play each other so the Padres will need to win and get help from other teams.
The home stand continues this weekend against St Louis before the final road trip of the season with 3 games against San Francisco and three games in Chicago against the White Sox.
