The San Diego Padres are back home for a 10-game homestand, and it may define their season, and lead to the acquisition of Trevor Bauer or Stephen Strasburg. Here’s why:
The San Diego Padres are coming off of a 3-3 road trip vs the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees where they showed signs of what the future could be like, but they will need to play better the next 10 games.
The team scored nearly 20 runs in the second game of the road trip including a franchise record 7 home runs. Austin Hedges hit a grand slam and Hunter Renfroe homered twice in the victory.
That could be signs of what is yet to come for this young team. Even without Fernando Tatis Jr. they managed to score nearly 19 runs.
After Chris Paddack had a couple of innings to forget in the 7-0 loss to the Yankees on Wednesday, the Padres head back home to face two teams well under the .500 mark and a playoff team in between.
Joey Lucchesi takes the mound in the first game of a three-game set against the Miami Marlins, who come to San Diego pretty hot after a series win over the Giants.
Now, they are 19-35 and 16 games under .500, so the Padres should come in with the mindset of getting a sweep before Bryce Harper and the Phillies come to town.
Starting Monday, the Phillies will face the Padres in what should be an intriguing matchup.
The scheduling may help the Padres because Philadelphia will be coming to San Diego after a weekend series with the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers, so the Phillies might be a little exhausted.
The Padres would, of course, be coming off of an easy series vs Miami so they should be ready to go come Monday.
Chris Paddack is scheduled to pitch on Tuesday, so it will be another test for the young right-hander.
The San Diego Padres will end the homestand by facing the Washington Nationals.
The Nationals are currently 8 games under .500 and are soon to be with an interim manager after there have been a lot of discussions about if manager Dave Martinez should be fired.
The Nationals still have a lot of stars on their squad like Anthony Rendon, Stephen Strasburg, and Max Scherzer, but they all might be traded come the end of July.
Now, they will be playing three games against them, and are sure to face at least one of the talented starters in the rotation like Strasburg, Scherzer, or Patrick Corbin.
The Nats offense has been clicking as of late, so I believe it will be important for the bullpen to be ready to go.