Padres’ Eyes On Rockies After Sox Leave Town With Surfboard And Series: Pads vs. Rockies Series Preview

By Friar Wire

By Bob Scanlan

The Red Sox left Petco Park and boarded their charter flight yesterday with a very large surfboard and a series win over the Padres after a convincing 7–2 victory in the series finale. David Price held the Friar offense to two runs over seven innings of work, while the Bosox offense took control of the game with a three-run fourth inning that also saw the departure of Pads starter Jarred Cosart thanks to a strained groin/hamstirng that may cause him to miss his next start and possibly more. The surfboard now taking up space in the luggage compartment of Boston’s charter flight was the Padres farewell gift to David Ortiz presented in a pregame ceremony to honor the retiring slugger’s colorful and impactful career. The beautiful long board featured a picture of his All-Star appearance in Petco earlier in the year.

With the traveling Boston circus now departed with Red Sox Nation in tow, the Pads will get back to focusing on intra-division play with the Rockies rolling in for a four game visit. Some things to know about these two clubs include…

RECENT TRENDS:

• Rockies — Colorado is coming off a series win against the Giants. Not sure if that tells you more about the the Rockies right now or the stumbling Giants, but the Rocks have won seven of their last eleven. When they’ve won recently they done it with a big offense scoring 55 runs in those recent victories to average just shy of 8 runs per game. A usual the offensive splits between home and away for their offense is dramatic. They rank first in the N.L. in scoring at home with 112 runs separating them from the next best Cubs. However on the road they are a very pedestrian 10th overall. The same can be said about their pitching with the worst team ERA in baseball at home, but

• a very respectable 8th place ranking overall on the road. Like the Padres the Rockies are playing mostly for pride, future playing time for the youngsters getting a peek at this point in the season, and possibly the job of their skipper Walt Weiss.
• Padres — With the loss noted above the Friars have now lost six of their last eight contests, and eleven of their last fifteen. More important than the loss of the game was the possible loss of Cosart which would throw a major monkey wrench in the organizational plan to go with a 6-man starting rotation for the last month of the season. They don’t want to put more innings on Christian Friedrich nor Luis Perdomo, but have no obvious options to take over Cosart’s spot if he indeed can’t go. Meanwhile, Jon Jay is back in the lineup to finish up the season making at bats for the other young outfielders even more precious down the stretch to prove they deserve a long look next spring when the outfield could be very crowded with PCL MVP Hunter Renfroe also ready to stake a claim. It’s tryout time for almost everyone on the roster down the stretch.

WHO’S HOT:

• Rockies — Rookie Raimel Tapia has made a nice little splash in his first dip in the big leagues

• pool hitting safely in his first four games upon his September call up, and reaching base in all six. For a larger samples size look no further than D.J. LeMahieu who hit .439 and reached base at at .534 clip in August and is riding a six-game hit streak already in September. Nolan Arenado has been hot for a while as well hitting .438 over his past 16 games, with 7 HR.s and 20 RBIs. On the mound Chad Bettis will pitch the series finale and has been throwing the best among the starters the Friars will face this series, coming off a complete-game shut out over the Giants in his last outing and having allowed 3ERs or less in ten of his last 11 starts.
• Padres — Yangervis Solarte is by far the hottest Friar right now hitting safely in eight of his last

• nine games, batting .343 over that stretch with 2 HRs, 2 doubles, a triple, and 7 RBIs. Alex Dikcerson may be starting to heat up again with 5 hits in the last three games including a pair of doubles. Wil Myers is trying to jump start himself again with hits in six of his last eight games. Series opener Clayton Richard has been the hot hand on the hill for the Friars having pitched 5 innings for more in each of his four starts since returning to the rotation and allowing 2 ERs or less in each. On the other end of the series closing things out in the finale will be Edwin Jackson who’s coming off a 7 shoutout inning performance against the Red Sox’s hottest offense in baseball.

WHO’S NOT:

• Rockies — Carlos Gonzalez ha always been streaky, and fortunately for the Friars he may be in

• one of his droughts as he has only 3 hits in his last 20 ABs, and 8 for his last 58 (.138), including only 2 HRs since August 3rd. Of the pitchers the Pads will face Game #2 starter Tyler Chatwood has surrendered 9 ERs in his last 9 innings spanning two games, and Jon Gray will pitch the third game coming off an outing where he allowed 5 ERs to AZ.
• Padres — Right now Travis Jankowski is in the doldrums having reached base only five times in his last 31 plate appearances, and Luis Sardinas has been similarly challenged hitting .174 over his last eight games. Luis Perdomo will pitch the second game coming off a 5-run performance five days previous, and Christian Friedrich pitching Saturday will look for his first victory in his last 13 appearances dating back to June 23rd.

X-FACTORS:

• Jeff Hoffman will be making only is fourth MLB start tonight. What does he have, and will it be as sharp after the adrenalin wears off after the first couple of MLB starts?

• The Rockies haven’t hit for a great average against the Padres but they make their swings count with the second most HRs total allowed by the Fathers’ hurlers this season going to the Rockies.
• It’s September which means you can’t tell the players without a program. How will all those new moving and available pieces affect decisions in both dugouts?
• Will their be a let down for the Padres after playing the playoff contending Red Sox and now the going nowhere Rockies? We saw it against the Braves after playing the Cubs and Marlins, but hopefully that’s not part of the program this series.