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“Padres Baseball….A Roller Coaster Ride”

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The rides at Coney Island in New York, or Belmont Park in Pacific Beach hold nothing over the San Diego Padres.

Ride that roller coaster and you will get thrills and some spills.

The Padres either hit home runs or they strikeout.

The Padres pitching either dominates or melts down.

And so we watch this summer of psychotic baseball, we feel the ups, lament the downs, and wonder where all this will take us.

Pretty cool to see Eric Hosmer’s screaming line drive grand slam home run against Texas.  This follows what Fernando Tatis, Wil Myers and Manny Machado did over the last three prior games.  1-swing of a bat sure can change a game.

What’s different now, is the Padres wearing out opposing pitchers, getting lots of guys on base, and giving their proven bats a chance to earn their pay, at least for this week they did.

So the Padres are in the MLB record book for a unique statistic.

But all that is offset by what is a serious crisis in the bullpen, and the mishandling of the pitching staff by a rookie manager and his newly hired veteran pitching coach.

Kirby Yates is gone with bone chip surgery in his elbow.

Drew Pomeranz fast start seems to have encountered arm tenderness problems now, a fear I had dating back to his constant injury issues with the Red Sox, regardless of what he did late in the season last summer in Milwuakee.

I don’t understand when Matt Strahm and Craig Stammen are pitching, considering the success they had under prior management, Andy Green and Darren Balsley.

Now you are asking Cal Quantrill to pitch back to back nights as a reliever rather than a starter?

Force feeding the kids, Michel Baez, Luis Patino has not worked out.

Joey Luchessi has been banished to the taxi squad.

Suddenly a trustworthy strength, all those closers, has been greatly diminished by either injury or misuse-mismanagement.

We’re almost tp the halfway point of this pennant race, and the Padres are clinging to the second wildcard playoff spot, but the teams behind them, who had bad starts, are starting to play better.

And just like it’s easy to say the Friars have 30-games or so to get it together, we must also realize, the other potential wildcard teams also have 30 or so games to make a run, and you can never rule out the Cardinals or Colorado or the Phillies.

Guess the biggest question.  Do you believe the Padres bats can carry them to the postseason?  Do you trust Tingler and his coaching staff to solve all the issues in a very shaky bullpen situation?

It’s a roller coaster ride that won’t slow down for another month or so.  We’ll get to the finish line.  No one knows how you will feel.  No one knows how the pitching staff will hold up either.

Hoping it is exhilarating getting to the finish.  Hope it doesn’t make you sick to your stomach if the Padres don’t get there.

Just don’t think we can expect the Friars to hit grand slam home runs every night.

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