More good pitching, even more bad hitting

We have found a pattern. When the Padres pitchers are dealing, the lineup is non-existent. Heck, overall the lineup is getting stumped, and some more record-breaking numbers were produced at the expense of the San Diego offense today. At this point, it's a fair to say that the Friar bats aren't clicking unless the opposing pitching is having an off day.

Today, the Pads mustered up a weak three hits. Nobody crossed the plate. What they did do was strike out 16 times. That's not a typo. The Padres gave Vince Velasquez 16 K's for his effort.

Meanwhile, Drew Pomeranz put in some great work, 6 innings of 3-hit baseball, giving up only 2 earned runs and striking out 8. It's a bummer when that performance has a shadow of miserable team offense cast over it. The Phillies earned their runs on a solo HR, a sacrifice fly, and a wild pitch. Another game well within reach.

Pomeranz's strong start

Miraculously, Alexi Amarista was one of the only Friars to earn a hit today. He had two. Jabari Blash had the other hit, a two-strike single. But he, and everybody else, struck out at least once today.

Padres fans are going to begin generating some pretty deep fears of the number 0, if this feast-or-famine pattern keeps up. We're certainly not last in the league when it comes to runs scored, we're top 15 when it comes to hits, we are top three in the strike out department, but the biggest fear is that the boosted stats of those two games in Colorado has hidden a very ugly truth about our offensive capabilities.

We'll have to see how the Padres fare against a newly-red Zack Greinke tomorrow, a man who usually has the Padres' number. We might have been shut down by worse pitchers, but we'll have to see if a change in attitude or return to the home turf will mix things up and make the Padres at bats worth watching.