Padres Try To Avoid Sweep After Game #2 Blowout: Pads vs. Rays 8/17

By Friar Wire

By Bob Scanlan

After an ugly 15–1 blowout loss to the Rays in Game №2 last night, the Padres will try to pick themselves up by the bootstraps today and salvage the final game of the set and this long road trip. Edwin Jackson survived a shaky first inning , but as we noted in yesterday’s preview, even though runs didn’t cross, his lack of early sharpness was a scary foreshadowing of the disaster to come. Three innings and eight runs later, the game for all intents and purposes was over. Said Jackson after the game, “I pretty much single-handedly sucked the soul out of the team.” Yup. The only thing left was the mop-up job by Carlos Villanueva who sucked up seven earnies of his own.

Ah, but one of the beautiful, and sometimes horrific, things about baseball is that within 24 hours you get a chance to do it all over again. It’s beautiful because the opportunity is there to put a bad day quickly behind you. It’s potentially horrific because after a game like last night, you have to put it behind you or another pounding awaits. What could help make this early getaway day for the Friars a thing of beauty includes…

1. Friedrich “not sucking… — the soul out of the team” like Jackson did last night. Christian

1. Friedrich has done his share of soul sucking lately, shlepping a 6.75 ERA with him over his past 10 starts. He usually starts off fine, but then around the third and fourth innings, he starts tampering with that soul in ways that are unredeemable. He has an 11.15 ERA in that third frame, and in many of his games that one big inning that he can’t seem to get through creates a hole that the offense, even when going good, can’t dig out of. So what can he change? Well, for starters he can…
2. Stop setting the table — When you look at who in opposing lineups is doing the damage against

1. him, it’s the top of the order. The first three batters of the lineup are collectively hitting .404 against him with an OBP approaching .450. The table has been proverbially set. With runners on base 50% of the time heading into the meat of the order, it’s no surprise he is getting victimized by the big inning time and time again. Turns out that the 4th and 5th batters are responsible for slugging 8 of the 9 home runs he’s allowed, and 7 of those were with runners on base. Huh…imagine that. He needs to stop being such a fine maitre d’ and get a bit stingier about serving runners on a platter to the thumpers in the lineup.
2. Getting to Archer where vulnerable — As with most pitchers, Rays starter Chris Archer has

1. some vulnerable spots that can be taken advantage of. To start with, he is vulnerable in the first inning with a 7.92 ERA. It would certainly behoove the Padres to do some early soul sucking of their own against the right hander to give their left hander some early breathing room. Second, if he falls behind early with a first-pitch ball, get ready for a cookie. Why? Because he gives up more hits on the 1–0 offering than any other as he tries to even the count. Opposing batters are hitting .512 against him when swinging at that 1–0 pitch. If you don’t get something good to hit, then take it and get ready for a free pass because that’s what he does almost 40% of the time once he falls behind 2–0. Finally, take advantage when he’s pitching out of the stretch with a runner on first base. He’s very tough with runners in scoring position, but with only a man on first he seems to worry about the potential of him stealing, which they do successfully against him 70% of the time. His batting average against is at its highest in that situation with only a man on first, and 70% of the home runs he allows with runners on base are with only that one runner on the first base pillow. Take advantage of his apparent distraction.