Invoking a Higher Power

Sorry to revert back to my Padre-pimpin' ways, but this team is damn hot.

Last night's thrilling come-from-behind victory over Atlanta made it five in a row and fourteen of seventeen. The win, which followed Sunday's 10-run 7th inning eruption-fueled rally against Florida, moved the Friars into a tie for first place with Arizona in the NL West. Of course certain naysayers might ask, "Yeah, but who were they playing?" Well 9 out of 11 against the cream of the NL (Arizona, St. Louis, Florida and Atlanta) ain't bad is it? Oh, and they've done this without starting pitchers Woody Williams and Tim Redding, as well as super-sub Geoff Blum.

But it's not just the record and the opponents that has San Diego fans pumped about this team. It's the way they're engineering these wins. Suddenly, the team is the antithesis of the lethargic club we saw throughout much of April. They're playing an aggressive, enthusiastic, confident brand of baseball. And the crowds at Petco are responding. (Ever since Trevor Hoffman nailed his 400th career save, the appearance of any of our relievers on the Petco mound is receiving playoff-caliber crowd support. Not sure where it came from, but I sure like seeing it as opposed to the typical nacho-and-beer fueled moribund crowds we've historically seen in San Dawg) One need look no further than a breakdown of the Pads' inning-by-inning scoring to see that a definite trend has emerged. And the trend is late inning heroics. A trend which is a hallmark of good teams.

On last night's TBS broadcast, Pete Van Weiren discussed the amazing scoring differentials that the Padres have vs. opponents over the first five innings of games vs. the last four. Unfortunately, I can't remember (nor find) the entire inning-by-inning breakdown Van Wieren mentioned. But over the first half of ballgames, opponents are outscoring San Diego by large margins in every inning. However, over the final frames, the Pads are positively pummeling peers. For example, 27-8 in the 8th inning. Although I wasn't able to find the exact stats mentioned during last-night's game, I found a few to substantiate this trend. Check out these numbers:

BA Runs OBP SLG ERA
Inning 1-6 .249 97 .320 .393 4.69
Inning 7+ .286 83 .379 .437 2.47

This can be explained in a couple fo ways. First of all, Padre hitters look to be slow out of the blocks but their confidence seems to be bouyed by starters keeping them in ballgames long enough to get to the Majors' most dominant bullpen. So much so, that the Friars lead the Majors in runs scored from the seventh inning on. The bullpen bucket brigade of Linebrink-Otsuka-Hoffman has been outstanding, but Chris Hammond has 4 wins and a 1.80 ERA and Rudy Seanez and Dennis Reyes are sporting sub 2.50 ERAs.

Of course, a healthy Ryan Klesko has seen the return of the powerstroke which was absent for much of last year. Something this prognosticator doubted would happen. Speaking of poor Padre prognositcations, Brian Giles is hitting a cool .540 since May 5 and is delivering in a lot of ways which don't show up in the boxscores. Yea! Sometimes I'm happy to be wrong.

All great news, to be sure. And it seems certain that bats will cool, injuries will occur, and that arms will grow weary. To coin a phrase, "It's early." Moreover, June will soon be upon us and the Padres inevitably manage to go through the gloomiest of Junes. So things will eventually balance out. But right now, this team is awfully fun to watch and the excitement bodes well for this team's long term chances.