Padres News: Friars Climb Up Rankings Thanks to Emergence of The Rotation
The San Diego Padres aren't off to a good start to the week. They dropped their first two of four against their division rival San Francisco Giants, in dramatic fashion. They'll try and even the series these next two days.
However, last week looked like a wake-up call to the team as they played some of their best baseball all season long. Their starting pitching has picked up the pace as of late, and because of that, they climbed the rankings, according to Bleacher Report.
18. San Diego Padres (35-37) Previous Rank: 21
Last Week: 2-1 vs. CLE, 2-1 vs. TB
The Padres' pitching staff tossed its third and fourth shutouts of the month last week, with Michael Wacha (W, 6.2 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 5 K) and Blake Snell (W, 6.0 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 12 K) starting on the mound in those games. With a 10-6 record and plus-25 run differential in June, they are looking more and more like the team that was expected to be a World Series contender.
At the moment, San Diego is five games back from the final spot of the wild card and 8.5 games back from the top spot in the NL West.
The Padres pitching, in particular, Blake Snell and Michael Wacha, are pitching the best they have all year long. Wacha is coming off a hot May where he won NL Pitcher of the Month, and Snell is pitching lights out, as he's only allowed 14 hits, two runs, and one home run in 30 innings pitched.
It's nice to have the rotation hit their stride, but now the entire team needs to get it going in order to cover a lot of ground. Hopefully, the Padres end this week strong and inch closer to .500.
