The 63-56 Cardinals host the 57-62 Padres
- John Lackey and Eric Stults open the series tonight at 7:15 (all times central).
- Lance Lynn will pitch against Tyson Ross Friday at 7:15.
- Shelby Miller gets the start against Jesse Hahn Saturday at 6:15.
- Adam Wainwright and Odrisamer Despaigne will finish the set Sunday at 1:15.
Before the Cardinals played the Padres at the end of July, I wrote that the Padres had a historically bad offense. If they were able to keep "up" their terrible team-wide output, they would have the worst offense in baseball since 1972. The good news for the Padres is that they've been considerably better of late. Over the last 14 days, the team has a 114 wRC+, and 111 going back 30 days.
Some of that bounce must certainly be regression to the mean -- a historically bad offense is always unlikely to really be quite that bad -- but there have been three developments that have improved the offense in a likely sustainable manner:
- Tommy Medica is now receiving regular playing time (often in LF), and while he's unlikely to be a star, he's quite likely to be a solid regular. Not the kind of guy you'd expect to see on the worst offense in baseball since 1972. John Sickels over at the always insightful minor league ball did a nice write-up of Medica recently here.
- Jedd Gyorko has an excellent rookie season last year, signed a nice contract extension in the off-season, and then was awful early this season. He spent most of June and July on the DL with plantar fasciitis, and returned July 28. He has a .333/.387/.526 line in the fifteen games since.
- Yangervis Solarte came over from the Yankees in the Chase Headley trade. Since then he's hit .282/.370/.423. He is unlikely to continue to hit at that level, but he is hitting well not and wasn't a part of the team's early struggles.
Keys to the Series:
- We'll see.
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