The Padre Post

The Angels really helped out the Padres by sweeping the Dodgers and after taking two of three in Seattle, the Padres now sit just one game back of LA.  The weekend series was highlighted by two great pitching performances, one of which was a little surprising.  We expect some good pitching from Chris Young now and then but when it comes from Justin Germano, it’s unexpected.  Germano threw six shutout innings yesterday and he’s now won his last two starts.  I’ll be taking a closer look at Germano here for you soon.

Marcus Giles had a great series and he had two hits in each of the three games.  He’s now hitting .293 and while he hasn’t hit for a lot of power, his .359 OBP is pretty respectable.  Adrian Gonzalez didn’t do much in the first two games, he did pick up three hits in the finale.  Gonzalez’s power drought is concerning (he hasn’t hit a homerun since May 9) but the Padres keep winning so no complaints here.

In prospect news, first base prospect Kyle Blanks was highlighted for his outstanding weekend.  He went eleven for eighteen and he drove in eleven runs in the weekend series.  Blanks checks in at 6′6″, 280 lbs and he’s had his injury problems in the past.  He’s definitely a guy to watch down at Lake Elsinore.  And then this story talks about third base prospect Chase Headley.

Next up are the Cubs, who roll into town for three games beginning tomorrow.  We’ll have a nice matchup in the opener with Jake Peavy taking on Rich Hill.

The last time I posted was almost three weeks ago and a big part of that was some system wide problems that I had with our network that made it extremely difficult to post.  Things have been fixed though so I’m hoping to get back into a regular schedule.

And it’s just in time because the Padres are heating up.  They’ve won three of their last four games and they head to Seattle for a three game series with interleague play starting up. 

Of course you can’t say too much about how the Padres are doing without talking about Jake Peavy.  I took some heat for taking him in the first round of my fantasy draft last year and it just looks like I was a year ahead of myself because Peavy is a Cy Young contender once again.  He leads the league in strikeouts  and ERA and he sits with a 5-1 record.  Only two times has he given up more the two runs and in six of his nine starts, he’s given up just one run or less.

On the hitting side, Adrian Gonzalez has been the star.  He already has ten homeruns and he also leads the team with 31 RBIs. 

The rest of the rotation has done a nice job as well and the Padres lead all of baseball with a 3.14 ERA and a 1.14 WHIP.

So hopefully, the Padres can make up that three game deficit in a hurry.  The first order of business are the Mariners though and Chris Young gets the start in the opener.