Only if the team makes it to October, that is. As of September 1, The San Diego Padres share first place in the National League West with the Arizona Diamondbacks. With one month to go in the regular season, anything can happen, especially considering the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Colorado Rockies are still within reach as well (five and six games back respectively). I will ignore the cellar-dwelling San Francisco Giants.
But pitching rules the playoffs. It always has, and San Diego sports the best 1-2 punch (sorry Kelvin Escobar and John Lackey) in all of baseball with Jake Peavy (who also might just be the best pitcher in baseball, sorry Johan Santana) and Chris Young. Peavy and Young are first and second in the major leagues in ERA at 2.10 and 2.38 respectively (and by the way, Young flirted with under-2.00 for much of the season).
In a five-game divisional series format, having those two possibly pitch four of those games (if manager Bud Black chooses a three-man rotation) is absolute overkill. In a seven-game series, Peavy and Young could pitch five. And let’s not forget the playoff-experienced veteran Greg Maddux as the No. 3 starter.
Here are a few interesting statistics regarding the Padres aces. Hitters are batting .202 and .182 against Peavy and Young, respectively, over 184.2 and 140 innings. That’s ridiculous. To break it down, Peavy embarrasses right-handed hitters while Young dominates both righties and lefties. Right-handed hitters are hitting only .164 and slugging .225 against Peavy (although left-handed hitters have had better luck, batting .251 while slugging .352). Young is consistent in his handling of hitters, with righties managing .171 and .233 and lefties faring better at .195 and .307 (in average and slugging respectively).
But there are two things currently hurting the Padres. One, Young might not be 100% given his recent back injury and trip to the disabled list in late July. In his last two starts, Young has allowed nine earned runs in 9.1 innings, raising his then major league leading ERA from 1.93 to his current 2.38. Although his strikeout total was eight during that span, his walk total was eight as well.
Article comments
1 - alessandro Nicolo
Not with a team .319 OBP they ain't. Mind you, they sure are making their runs count behind, as you argue, the stellar pitching. They can be dangerous if they get timely runs.