This story is taken from AJ Cassavell's Padres Beat Newsletter. To read the full newsletter, Click here. and subscription Put it in your inbox regularly.
Paders was tied again after two-thirds of the Dodgers at Petco Park this weekend. We'll head to the crunch time – an interesting part of this season. Baseball has serious bets every day. Maybe there is a little scoreboard to watch?
“No.” said Gavin on the bed. “If we win every game, we’ll be fine.”
This is obviously the right mindset. If not exactly right. (If it comes down to tie, the Dodgers have a head-to-head finale.)
So how did the priest win the West? This is what they need to do in the last five weeks.
Often early clues
Obviously, right? Score first and you are more likely to win. But this is more real to Padres than anyone else. Their bullpen is the deepest in baseball. If they lead after five, they will be happy with the win. No team can almost match 28 times this season, and they have earned at least four scoreless frames from Relief.
Here’s another thing: Opponents are very aware that Padres’ bullpen is so deep. In fact, this is so deep that Padres can usually use its highly leveraged weapon when other teams don't have it. They did this in the fifth and sixth innings. They did this with clues of four shots and five straight wins.
So you are the opposing manager facing the priest. Are you going to burn your good rescuer to chase the game you've lost? Fight against this bullpen team? I won't. This allows every chance of the Padres attack to resist weaker mitigators. If they can get an early lead, that's it.
The length of the starter
I think it would be great if Paders wanted to rely (very) on their bullpen in October. They may only have to do four to five innings from the starting pitcher. There are many days off, so don't worry about workloads.
But over the next five weeks, Paders must get length from the starting pitcher. This is the best way to keep five highly leveraged weapons in the bullpen. Manager Mike Shildt doesn't hesitate to use all five arms in the same game if he absolutely needs it. But doing so has an impact on the next day’s game (and the game afterwards, etc.).
Take the first two games of this weekend series as an example. Yu Darvish and Nestor Cortes worked for 6 rounds respectively. Padres' bullpen nailed both games with a high-leverage reliefer, only one of which pitched in both games (Jason Adam).
Starting September 5 (in Colorado all over the world), the Padres play 19 games in 20 days. By then, it seems like they might have Michael King spinning. Their best chance to win as many games as possible is to steadily blend their high-rate rescuers together, no more than three games a night. The best way to do this is to start with the rotation that starts with mass.
Keep the atmosphere high
It is undeniable that the atmosphere is very good now. Of course it won't be like a dog's life, right?
These resonances did not happen by chance. Padres made 5 trades on the deadline, involving 22 players – their club didn't miss any rhythm.
“Obviously, this is the biggest hat for the players,” said Hilt. “The hat of the hat [general manager] AJ [Preller] Used to get them. Hats and club staff and staff adapt. Because this transition is really done well. …These guys come in and they just absolutely accept our attention. Very suitable. ”
As Shildt pointed out, I think the front desk should get some credibility there. These actions are not performed on a spreadsheet. They firmly believe that the different personalities they add to this club are appropriate – so far, they absolutely have.
Utilizing timetables
Tonight, Padres started a three-game series with a good Seattle Mariners. After the end, their season has one month left. In terms of schedule, no one in baseball is more likely to last month.
This is correct based on the average win percentage of opponents. But this is true. They will play against teams that have little to no play. After Seattle, Padres has only two games against the team in the playoff position – the Mets in mid-September, then the Winemakers.
Meanwhile, San Diego had 10 games against the Rockies and Whitesokes in September, owners of two of the worst records in baseball. Usually, Padres has done a great job of beating downsides against inferior opponents this year. (Good teams do this.) They play 49-24 against teams below .500.
If the Padres can keep the pedals in the game of the team they should beat, then there is a good chance they will celebrate the first division championship in 19 years.