Hoping for rock bottom
The San Diego Padres can't seem to stop sinking into yet another collapse. Now, they're just hoping that they've hit rock bottom and can start climbing back up.
My mind was blown yesterday when, after the Padres yet again had their teeth kicked in 7-0 by the Cleveland Guardians, manager Bob Melvin said this:
Whew, buddy. When he’s saying things like “Today was hopefully rock bottom,” things are not going well for the San Diego Padres.
Yesterday, I said that the team had scored 9 runs in 5 games. I guess you can make that 9 runs in 6 games, for an average of 1.5 runs per game. If you’re looking for a reason, here’s part of one:
The Padres are abysmal at hitting with men in scoring position. There’s no real rhyme or reason to it, but it does seem like the Padres’ pro scouting department leaves the team ill-prepared most nights and that usually magnifies in pressure situations like those.
There’s not a lot I can write about this team that you haven’t heard a dozen times in the last two days. They’ve been terrible since the trade and terrible since the Tatis suspension announcement. The bullpen has been giving Bob Melvin and A.J. Preller nightmares since opening day.
The Padres’ only real hope post-Guardians series is the same as their hope pre-Guardians series. They need Juan Soto and Josh Bell to catch fire. They need Josh Hader to figure out how to throw his slider for strikes (good signs yesterday in a meaningless game!).
Oh, and apparently Blake Snell needs to stop tipping his pitches…
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