Padres narrowly avoid defeat

The San Diego Padres should be a much better team than the Detroit Tigers, but after two games it feels like that's not the case.

Okay, the Padres got a win yesterday. Any win at the MLB level is worthy of praise and admiration. But, man, they really struggled to beat one of the four worst teams in all of baseball a day after said team kicked their teeth in.

I suppose the Padres did what we have been pushing them to do: focus on pitching and defense.

As per usual, Mike Clevinger was fantastic until around the 90th pitch. Luis Garcia was also great, picking up his 17th hold of the season. And then…

Taylor Rogers really doesn’t seem like a closer. A good pitcher? Undoubtedly. But he gets rattled by little things. Usually it is when his slider hits someone in the back foot. Yesterday it was a 2-strike call on a curveball up in the zone that he thought should’ve been a strike.

It was uncharacteristic of Rogers to see him walking more than halfway down to home plate to argue with the umpire as the batter made his walk down to first base. If you have been watching him all year, you could’ve predicted what would come next.

Rogers gave up a single, which knocked in the tying run (a hit he gave up to start the inning) and became his 6th blown save of the season.

Do you feel comfortable with the idea of Taylor Rogers closing out a playoff game in a few months in a similar situation? The Padres probably aren’t either, which is just one more problem that A.J. Preller is trying to solve for in the week between now and the trade deadline.