Sometimes, you just have to marvel.<\/p>\n
When Monday\u2019s game began, the Padres stood last in runs scored per game, batting average and slugging rate.<\/p>\n
Thirty teams. Dead last.<\/p>\n
The Padres\u2019 starting pitching wasn\u2019t expected to be very good this year.<\/p>\n
It has devolved into a liability.<\/p>\n
The Padres went into the series opener against the Braves desperate for Michael King to regain sharp form and join Walker Buehler as a reliable performer in the rotation.<\/p>\n
Fifth from the bottom in ERA, last in quality starts since mid-May, the rotation isn\u2019t pitching enough innings.<\/p>\n
Now, on to the star of this show.<\/p>\n
Once again, the Padres boast a very good bullpen.<\/p>\n
Their relievers have rescued them this season. Leading the majors in win shares and trailing only the Braves in ERA, the relief crew has kept the team in the wild-card race and rewarded fans who have put the Padres second of 30 teams in attendance.<\/p>\n
Manager Craig Stammen, asking more of his relievers due to the rotation\u2019s struggles, had an \u201copener\u201d start three different games on the recent road trip.<\/p>\n
Lefty Wandy Peralta responded with a pair of scoreless outings, lowering his ERA to 1.91 for the season. Rookie Bradgley Rodriguez also notched a scoreless first.<\/p>\n
But the Padres won\u2019t be able to bullpen their way into the playoffs, and in some areas, the workload is becoming a concern.<\/p>\n
Rodriguez was returned to the minors Friday, mostly to get him rest. The righty has a 2.10 ERA in 34 innings.<\/p>\n
Versatile Ron Marinaccio has shouldered a large load, logging 38 \u2154 innings with a 3.72 ERA. The 31-year-old\u2019s career-high total for a big-league season is 47 1\/3 innings three years ago with the Yankees.<\/p>\n
What will A.J. Preller do?<\/p>\n
The Padres\u2019 president of baseball operations sparked the offense by promoting outfielder Samad Taylor, who was batting .362 with four steals in four tries heading into Monday.<\/p>\n
I doubt Preller trades significant players for a starting pitcher. This team hasn\u2019t inspired that kind of investment. I suspect it will have to earn that kind of move.<\/p>\n
Can Triple-A starter Jhony Brito, 28, be for the rotation what Taylor has been for the offense?<\/p>\n
If Brito could provide five innings with two, even three runs allowed and do it a few times, the Padres would do cartwheels.<\/p>\n
Padres relievers rank third when it comes to stranding runners, and have the third-best home run rate.<\/p>\n
Availing themselves of the team\u2019s reliable infield defense, they have the sport\u2019s best groundball rate, headed by lefty Adrian Morej\u00f3n.<\/p>\n
Stammen took no credit for the unit\u2019s success, quipping Monday: \u201cCertainly, it\u2019s not the manager putting them in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have really good pitchers,\u201d he added, \u201cand they\u2019ve been able to handle a myriad of situations, and they\u2019ve embraced their role as a very important part of our team.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe unity is there,\u201d said Morej\u00f3n, who had a bullpen-best 39 innings entering Monday. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to help each other out, and that\u2019s the goal (pitching coach) Ruben Niebla has established.\u201d<\/p>\n
Helped also by other teams jogging in place, the Padres entered Monday just one game out of the final wild-card slot before facing a Braves club that has received a dominant first half from ex-Padres closer Robert Su\u00e1rez.<\/p>\n
With the schedule stiffening this week and through late July, the Padres can\u2019t expect their bullpen to keep them afloat to the extent it has.<\/p>\n
The relievers could use some relief.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sometimes, you just have to marvel. When Monday\u2019s game began, the Padres stood last in runs scored per…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":733106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2407],"tags":[5,853,4,43,137,18,4339,4338,185,3546],"class_list":["post-733105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego-padres","tag-baseball","tag-latest-headlines","tag-mlb","tag-padres","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-padres","tag-sandiego","tag-sandiegopadres","tag-sports","tag-top-stories-sdut"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116797133520625906","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=733105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/733106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=733105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=733105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=733105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}