The San Diego Padres on Top of the NL West
By Vernon Croy
Make no mistake about it, the San Diego Padres are on top of the NL West division because of their outstanding pitching staff. While other division leaders in the Major Leagues, with the possible exception of the Cincinnati Reds, have relied on a mostly balanced attack to succeed, the Padres have simply not scored enough this season and, therefore, their margin for error has been extremely small. Luckily, the team has received great pitching from Mat Latos, Clayton Richard, Wade LeBlanc, and Jon Garland all season and, therefore, has not needed to score many runs. Latos, in particular, has been outstanding, as he is 9-4 with a 2.62 ERA and 91 strikeouts. Richard also has an ERA of 2.74, LeBlanc's is 3.10 and Garland's is 3.24, so no one is scoring much against this team.
On the season, the Padres have only given up 266 runs, which is far and away the best in Major League Baseball. The next closest team is the St. Louis Cardinals, who have given up 302 runs, so it is not even close. The Padres are also a MLB best 19-10 in one-run games, which proves that they are perfectly comfortable in these situations. Much of this is because of the team's confidence in closer Heath Bell, who has 23 saves and an ERA of 1.72.
Offensively, the Padres are 100% carried by Adrian Gonzalez, as he is hitting .291 with 16 homeruns and 51 RBIs. The team does not have another player with more than 8 homeruns or 32 RBIs, so offense has clearly been tough to come by. The team also does not have a regular hitting over .300, so this season will come down to pitching for the Padres.