Kyle Higashioka Credits Padres' Pitching For Pushing Through Tough Series

Despite losing the final game of the series on a walk-off home run, the San Diego Padres came out of their three-game weekend series against the Kansas City Royals winning two of three.

While the Padres would have loved to win that third game and earn their first sweep of the season, they can still acknowledge that they performed pretty well against one of MLB's best teams.

The 36-25 Royals rank second in the American League Central and have the fourth-best record in the AL. Comparatively, the Padres have a 32-30 record. The Royals' lineup is also one of the best in the league. Kansas City ranks seventh in batting average, slugging rate, hits, and total bases. They additionally rank fifth in runs and third in RBIs this season. Two of their hitters — Bobby Witt Jr. and Salvador Perez — rank top-10 in batting average. Witt additionally ranks first in runs and tied for second in hits with Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts.

Padres catcher Kyla Higashioka credited the team's pitching for helping them get through the series with two crucial wins. The Padres' three starters for the series — Dylan Cease, Randy Vasquez, and Michael King — were solid against the Royals. None of the three allowed more than three earned runs, and King allowed just one earned run while pitching seven whole innings.

“This lineup is a very tough, scrappy lineup,” Higashioka said of the Royals' batters, via Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune. “You have the damage guys at the beginning. And the guys at the end are pretty high-contact guys. … Our pitchers did a great job just executing pitches in the tough spots and making sure that we didn’t get beat by certain guys.”

The Padres' pitching unit will need to step up even more with their top-two starters, Yu Darvish and Joe Musgrove, getting placed on the injured list. While Musgrove has been on and off this season, Darvish has been mostly solid as the team's ace. With both of them out and Adam Mazur getting called up, the team will need to band together to stay alive in the playoff race.