Getting swept by the Mariners doesn’t mean a lot for the Padres.
After all, Mike Shildt’s club still enjoys good pitching health by Major League Baseball’s standards, so there’s no point in getting worked up about a few defeats in a row.
Though Sunday’s 6-1 loss was a snoozer, nothing in it altered the fundamental strength that is the team’s pitching ability and health.
Michael King’s arm appeared strong and loose.
The Padres’ starter dangled a few pitches in the fourth inning, and the Mariners made him pay for it. No cause for concern there.
Sean Reynolds, a promising reliever, looked free and easy in his comeback from a foot injury. He was clocked at 98 mph Sunday, giving the Padres a nice lift.
The sweep was deserved, for sure.
Mariners pitchers brought filthy stuff to the East Village, and most Padres hitters couldn’t keep up. “They were better; it’s that simple,” said Fernando Tatis Jr., who homered Sunday.
Mariners fans showed flair, too.
Props to the fan Sunday who wore a Mariners jersey honoring Gaylord Perry. The Hall of Fame pitcher was 44 years old when he last pitched for Seattle. Five seasons earlier, Perry won a Cy Young with the Padres.
Back to the Padres’ big picture:
The pitching staff’s health and the 14-3 start to the season have provided a thick cushion during recent downturns, such as the Rays and Mariners each sweeping a three-game series in the East Village.
As it stands now — a mandatory disclaimer when pitching health is the topic — the Padres are the rare playoff contender that doesn’t appear to have a need to trade for either starting pitchers or relievers.
The same can’t be said of most other contenders in the National League.
Once again, the Dodgers have shut down several pitchers who are either front-end starters or good relievers. The Diamondbacks, Cubs, Phillies and Braves probably will have to trade for arms, too, before the July 31 deadline.
Fans are focused on their own team, understandably, but with more than half the season to go, it’s clear that baseball’s pitching-injury crisis is still a problem. The Diamondbacks and Phillies, trying to overcome bad bullpens and pitching attrition, would love a reliever like Reynolds, who with the Padres is seventh or so in the bullpen hierarchy.
The Padres do have needs.
For one, A.J. Preller figures to obtain a left fielder.
As expected, replacing Jurickson Profar’s amazing production of 2024 was going to be nearly impossible. But the Padres haven’t come close. Entering Sunday, the team’s left fielders had batted .195 with a .517 OPS.
Tinkering with the high-IQ catching tandem of Martin Maldonado and Elias Dias may not jibe with the team’s emphasis on run prevention. Will Luis Campusano earn himself another crack at a platoon role?
The lack of hitting at left field and at catcher should be solvable. And Preller wouldn’t be Preller if he didn’t add a reliever or two before August.
For all the upbeat talk here following a sweep, one inconvenient fact stood out Sunday.
The Mariners continue to excel at producing homegrown pitchers who are good or very good big-league starters, while the Padres continue to get very little direct production from starting pitchers they acquired as amateurs.
Yes, the Padres have outperformed the Mariners in more important areas than homegrown pitching.
They’ve won four playoff series in their 10 full seasons under Preller, and that’s four more than the Mariners have won in their nine full seasons under their top baseball executive, Jerry Dipoto, a former big-league pitcher. Actually, Seattle hasn’t won a postseason series since 2001.
Preller smartly traded homegrown pitchers, as part of hugely successful moves for big leaguers such as Blake Snell, who won a Cy Young Award with the Padres, and reliever Jason Adam, a standout in last year’s playoff push.
But the Mariners have shown the Padres how it can be done, drafting pitchers such as Logan Gilbert, Bryce Miller and George Kirby, all of whom have strengthened their rotation. Padres hitters saw another smooth one Sunday in Bryan Woo, a sixth-round pick out of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 2021.
Woo makes good use of powerful legs, working from the ground up. The right-hander was unfazed by Tatis launching an 0-2, low-and-away breaking ball for a first-inning home run. From there, Woo overmatched the Padres, finishing with no walks and five hits allowed in seven innings.
ed also by another starting pitcher/draftee of theirs, Emerson Hancock, the Mariners have overcome having Miller, Gilbert and Kirby on the injured list.
Could the Padres overcame such an injury challenge? They’d rather not find out. The hope is that they’ll be adding to their rotation, not subtracting from it, if Yu Darvish, 38, can complete his comeback from elbow inflammation that shut him down in March.
