The Padres have played 20 series' this year. Seven of those series' have been against teams that currently have a record of .500 or better. They have a 9-13 record in those series'. A .409 winning percentage which is a decent amount higher than their season .328 one. In home games the team actually has a winning record against these sub .500 teams with a 6-4 mark and no series losses. Winning may not come easy against these teams when you're the Padres, but it certainly comes easier.
The Padres just finished the season series with the sub .500 Milwaukee Brewers and they finished 3-3 on the year. That series starts a trend of playing a lot of sub .500 teams. Next the Padres travel to Seattle to face the sub. 500 Mariners. Then, it's a trip to East Bay to face the Oakland A's another sub .500 team. The Rangers will visit Petco Park and that's a first place club, but this is the only exception to the trend. After them, the Mariners are in town to decide the Vedder Cup and will likely still be sub .500. The Padres will next head to the road again and play last year's worst team and still floundering Houston Astros. Then, it's one of the season recurring trips to Coors Field to take on the Rockies and their sub .500 record. The road trip concludes with a trip to the Arizona desert to combat the Diamondbacks who are currently at .500, but could be below that mark by then.
That's a total of 7 series', with 5 against some of the league's worst, 1 against one of the best and 1 against a team just barely overcoming true mediocrity. This is quite the departure from the season's opening months. The only caveat to this respite in the schedule is interleague play. The Padres got trounced by the Mariners last year going 1-5 and were swept by the Minnesota Twins who finished last in the AL. A series win against the Red Sox and a sweep of the Royals even things out, but it's still a caution against counting chickens before they hatch.
Nevertheless, in this season that seems to have the cringe worthy lows that parallel The Empire Strikes Back as was recently revisted by Dex. But, this could be our moment to meet Yoda, grow strong and realize that with time and effort we can do cool things like lift entire spaceships with our minds.