Friday worked out really nicely for the Padres. Not only did they win their game against the Nats, Arizona managed to beat Colorado and the Dodgers beat the Giants to give us a game lead over the Dodgers and a game and a half over the Rockies.
In this division, we'll take the breathing room we can get.
I was looking over ESPN's Power Rankings this weekend, which are the last ones going into the All-Star Break. The Padres have solidified their position as the second best team in the National League behind the Miracle Mets, but even more interesting, the third, fourth and fifth best NL teams are the Rockies, Giants and Dodgers, respectively. St. Louis has been relegated to number 14 on the rankings list, which is entirely due to them crapping all over themselves in the Kansas City series. How you going to let yourself lose to the Royals? Honestly. Have some self respect and change into some clean underwears.
Does this mean the Padres or our division be getting some respect?
The answer to that, of course, is probably not. The AL is pretty well stacked in terms of talented teams. Still, the Padres are a team that I can feel proud of going into the break.
Remember last season with all of the question marks? Maybe I'm being naive, but if the season were to end today, I'd like the Padres chances in the playoffs. Last season I couldn't have said the same thing.
The pitching is solid and relatively deep. The defense has been excellent (except for when Barfield gets really easy ones), and while the offense hasn't been anything to write home about, they have been converting OBP into runs much better than they had before. And what's more, it doesn't matter if we don't get home field advantage in the playoffs because our road record is that much better than our home record. It might actually be a benefit to play in the enemy park.
Indeed, it's been a good year so far. Let's hope the Padres can carry it through and onto the road to the World Series. If we meet St. Louis again in the playoffs, there's no way they're walking away with a post season sweep against this Padres team.
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