Can Padres and Cardinals Ignite Their Sluggish Offenses in a High-Stakes Showdown?

Padres vs. Cardinals, 7:45 ET

I went 1-1 yesterday which was an improvement from going 0-2 the past two days. When you write about baseball everyday for somewhere around seven or eight months out of the year, there are bound to be bad stretches. Hopefully the bad stretch is behind us and we can focus on winning. Each day brings a new opportunity and I’m here to seize it! Today’s opportunity is between the Padres and the Cardinals, let’s get a win here.

The Padres are still in second place in their division, and looking at the standings, I’m a little surprised about it. They are just 4.5 games behind the Dodgers which at least provides the illusion of a bad Dodgers week and a good Padres week allowing them to potentially take the divisional lead. I’d be surprised, but it is possible. The Padres need to find a way to get on a sustained winning streak. They are eight games over .500 at the moment, but I haven’t seen them really go on a tear like they are capable of. There is a lot of roster fluctuation with the team due to injuries and rotation pitchers going down for stretches, so that is a contributing factor. One guy who is back with the team, and is now making his fourth start of the year, is Yu Darvish. We all know Darvish has the stuff to compete with anyone, but he hasn’t quite found a groove yet, allowing nine earned runs in the 13.1 innings he has thrown. He is going deeper into each game, so that’s a positive sign. He is facing a Cardinals team today that has hit him pretty well in the past, batting .303 overall against him. 

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