Alright, so I will blog about the Padres by popular demand.
I'm getting a whole bunch of text messages and requests for a Padre Blog.
So here it goes...
My First Place San Diego Padres are surprising everyone this year, especially the National League West. I was asked a couple of days ago, if they would be able to keep it up. I responded with, "Sure, why not. They haven't even started to play well."
The Padres have been playing descent. I'm not going to sit here and say that they are the team to beat in the National League, (maybe not even the West division). But I will say that we are playing well enough to win.
Timely hitting, good pitching and playing "small ball" the right way.
Hitting is contagious; any baseball fan will tell you that. Runs usually come in bunches. But for the Padres it doest really happen like that. They're not the Yankees or Cardinals with stacked line-ups and are capable of putting 12 runs or so each game, with a ton of Home runs. The Padres are a scrappy bunch that move runners over and there will be a different hero each night.
Now the good pitching has to go with it. They don’t need a shut out performance every single night. Just give them a good solid 5 or 6 innings and keep the boys in the game.
I feel like the Padres are all roll players. Tony Gwynn JR, will hit lead off, then Will Venable takes that roll another night. The brothers Scot and Jerry Hairston do their thing when called on, weather it be stealing a base, pinch hitting or making a start in the outfield. Also Kyle Blanks filling in for Venable while he is hurt.
But the small ball is what is creating wins. Moving the guy over to the next base, bunting, Sac fly and base stealing. The Padres get in position to score and make things happen. They’re first in the National League with 25 stolen bases. They come up big with two out runs and they have done while just hitting a team .246 they are ranked 11th in the National League. Just wait until they get hot. They Padres always finish strong but they often start off slow out of the gates.
Look out for the San Diego Padres this year, they could be a Cinderella Team.
