As crunch time nears and the playoff picture starts shaping up, the Padres find themselves two games back of the Los Angeles Dodgers as of Sept. 5, and one and a half games ahead of the Philadelphia Phillies for the National League wild card position.
Obviously, winning their division for a second straight year would be preferable to taking the wild card, as it would mean facing the New York Mets, who have the best record in the National League and against whom the Padres are 2-5 this year.
Yet August wasn’t without its highlights and lowlights. San Diego recorded 13 wins and 15 losses in the month. The team was swept in New York and at home to San Francisco, then later rallied and took all three games against the Dodgers, while splitting series against Houston and Washington and against division rivals Colorado and Arizona.
Longtime closer Trevor Hoffman inched toward his hot pursuit of the all-time saves record held by Lee Smith. With 36 saves on the season and seven saves out of seven opportunities in the month of August, his career total of 472 is just six saves behind Smith’s 478 as of Sept. 5. Here’s to hoping Padres fans will get at least six more chances to hear “Hell’s Bells” late in the game before the season ends, and with only six home games remaining, it’s up to the Friars’ bats to put Hoffman in pole position.
Monday, Sept. 4 showed the Padres exhibiting some of the heroics needed to reach the playoffs once again. Down a run in the bottom of the ninth, Josh Barfield launched a three-run walk-off homer toward the Western Metal Supply building, his 12th home run of the season, to lift the Padres to a 7-5 win against the Rockies.
It was the latest moment of brilliance in a superb season for Barfield. On Aug. 2 he was named the National League Rookie of the Month for July. In that month, he hit .400, with 40 hits (a new Padres rookie record), 16 runs, eight doubles, one tripple, three home runs and 13 RBI.
The Padres also re-acquired local boy David Wells back from the Boston Red Sox on Aug. 31, after he last wore the Padres shirt in 2004. In his first outing back with the team on Sept. 3, Wells pitched superbly, notching 14 strikeouts while allowing one run and two hits. After the game, Wells reportedly sent a text message to fellow ace Jake Peavy asking him how he’d follow up that performance.
“He just continues to amaze us “” at his age to be doing what he’s doing,” manager Bruce Bochy said of Wells, who is 43.
Coming up, the Padres embark on a nine-game road swing to San Francisco, Cincinnati and Los Angeles, respectively, from Sept. 8 to 18. They then begin a six-game consecutive homestand to Arizona and Pittsburgh from Sept. 19 to 24 and close out the season traveling to St. Louis and Arizona from Sept. 25 to Oct. 1. With the division and wild card races as tight as they are, it’s safe to say that every game and every pitch now matters more than ever.