Padres Vs. Giants: NL West up for grab
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The most intriguing series of the weekend is already underway and Padre fans have a reason to celebrate. Padre fans can rest assured that their Padres will remain atop the NL West despite the outcome of Saturday and Sunday’s games. The Padres came into AT&T Park Friday night and clung on to a 3-2 victory over the Giants. The NL West has become one of the most competitive divisions in all of baseball and two putrid offenses are atop it
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The Giants and Padres both came into the season looking to be led by strong pitching while their sub-par offense tries to catch up. The Padres’ staff has the best ERA (3.23) in the NL while the Giants are 4th (3.48). However, the Giants rank 9th and the Padres are 11th in runs scored in the NL (out of 16 teams). Both teams have continued to rely heavily on their excellent pitching and have dealt with streaky hitting. The Padres have a proven power hitter in Adrian Gonzalez and tried to add solid veteran hitting around him with Miguel Tejada and Ryan Ludwick. SInce the trade deadline, the Padres have gone 8-4 including 5 straight victories coming into this afternoon’s game.
The Giants on the other hand have gone 32-10 since July 5th and have had timely hitting coupled with solid pitching. While most of the Giants’ starting rotation has been getting the job done, their ace Tim Lincecum has continued to struggle and be inconsistent. The Giants have improved on the offensive end during this span due to the emergence of rookie catcher Buster Posey (21 game hit streak). And with recent pickup Jose Guillen set to join the Giants lineup this weekend, the Giants can look to have another veteran bat with great fielding skills to join their outfield.
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Even though the Giants dropped the series opener Friday night, look for the Giants to rebound Saturday and Sunday afternoon. The Giants are putting young Madison Bumgarner on the mound Saturday afternoon and should look for him to keep them in the game until the late innings. The Giants offense must find a way to get on base and put runs on Padres starter Mat Latos. This seems to be a difficult task for the Giants since Latos is 2-0 with a 0.82 ERA in 3 starts against the Giants this season, including a 1-hit 1-0 victory over the Giants on May 13th. Sunday afternoon has Lincecum facing off against LeBlanc. Lincecum is coming off back to back losses and a 4 inning 8 ER performance against the Cubs 4 days ago. Lincecum needs to find his stride and do it quickly in order to keep the Giants in this divisional race. My prediction for the rest of the series: Giants win Saturday 4-2 and Sunday as well 5-1. While the Giants can’t grab 1st place in this division this weekend, I expect them to close the gap to 1.5 games.
This is just an opinion…so please Pardon My Bias.
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