National League Teams Slumping

I guess it is just time for teams to go on a landslide. Three NL teams have had a tough past few weeks including the once NL leading San Diego Padres, the St. Louis Cardinals and the San Francisco Giants. With one month left in the regular season, it definitely is not the best time to be slumping. All three teams someway in contention to make the playoffs but with the way they have been playing the past few weeks, who knows what could happen.

The Padres are on a 7-game skid, this coming after having never dropped more than 3 games in a row all season long and this also only taking place once all year. Known for their consistency and great pitching, things have taken a huge turn for San Diego. They have given up 41 runs over the past 7-game losing streak, a characteristic not usually associated with this amazing pitching staff. On top if that, even though not much is expected from them offensively, 16 runs over 7 games is just not going to cut it. The Padres made trade deadline moves to get Miguel Tejada and Ryan Ludwick, and although they have been playing well, it seems as if they have not added any fire to the Padre offense. It is hard to tell whether the San Diego offensive will ever get to the point that it needs to and therefore their pitching really does need to get it together. Luckily for the Padres, the San Francisco Giants have not taken advantage of this slump.

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In the month of August, the Giants went 13-15 and were not able to dig deep into the Padres lead while San Diego went on this losing streak. They have finally started getting back in their groove and have narrowed the Padre lead to only 3 games, although at this point it seems as if they could of already been in charge of the NL West. Tim Lincecum was finally able to pull out a win after having 5-straight bad outings. With the Padres hitting a rut, this could be the best chance the Giants have to overtake San Diego and make their way into the playoffs.

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Finally there is the faltering St. Louis Cardinals, who just a few weeks ago were making a run at the Cincinnati Reds for the lead in the NL Central. Over their past 16 games they have gone 4-12, including a recent sweep by the Houston Astros. They are now 8 games behind the Reds and are 5 behind the Philadelphia Phillies for the wild-card spot. They too are having pitching issues as starting studs Adam Wainwright, Chris Carpenter and Jake Westbrook have been struggling. That being said, the Cardinal offense is highly relying on Albert Pujos and Matt Holliday, while not getting too much support from other players. Of course I do not want to count them out quite yet, but it is going to be very difficult to dig themselves out of this hole. The Reds are playing great ball and have just brought up 105 mph pitching Aroldis Chapman. The Cardinal’s best shot may be to conquer the wild card spot but this too is no easy feat with the Phillies and and one of the NL West teams ahead of them.

With the final month of baseball coming down, it is time for these teams to show up or go home. There is no longer any room for mistakes and if they are unable to get themselves out of this rut, then they might as well pack it in.

This is just an opinion…so please Pardon My Bias.