Padres fans bring out the boo birds

After yet another embarrassing performance by the San Diego Padres offense, the fans finally had enough and started booing the team at Petco Park.

About three months ago, I remember I wrote about run differential. Run differential is pretty easy to explain, it’s as if wins and losses didn’t matter and all that mattered is how many runs your team scores against how many they give up.

Here’s what I wrote about run differential when trying to figure out if the Padres were actually good or not, back when they looked awesome (without much of an offense) back in June:

The Padres current run differential is +44, meaning they have scored 44 more runs than their opponents over the first 57 games that they have played. Here’s a list of the teams that have a run differential of +44 or better so far this season, along with where they currently sit in their respective divisions:

• Dodgers +114 (1st)

• Yankees +104 (1st)

• Mets +64 (1st)

• Astros +45 (1st)

• Padres +44 (2nd)

I think it’s fair to say the Padres are one of the 5 or 6 best teams in baseball, right now, and that’s with their offense still being fairly inconsistent.

You’re wondering how those numbers hold up months later, aren’t you? Me too. Let’s try it out:

• Yankees +212

• Dodgers +201

• Astros +114

• Mets +102

• Braves +80

• Cardinals +67

• Blue Jays +61

• Phillies +58

• Padres +35

The run differential never lies! It’s just not really a predictor of anything. The Padres were a top 5-6 team a few months ago. They’re a top 10 team (out of 30) now. And everything they did to add offense to their lineup and an elite closer to their bullpen has only made this number worse.

What’s wrong with the Padres? I don’t know. I feel like we have even less answers than last year, when the team collapsed and we really didn’t understand why beyond the fact that the players seemed to be feuding with the front office.

This team should be better. It should be up there with the Astros and Mets and Braves instead of getting lapped by them and getting shutout by guys making their MLB debut. But it’s not and nobody knows why, but we’ve reached the point where the fanbase has expectations (rightfully so) and are started to boo the home team when they’re getting their teeth kicked in by a squad that’s under .500.