00:00I'm a little surprised that one of the best teams since the All-Star break,
00:04you know, Boston, of course, has been the best.
00:06But in the National League, it's been the San Diego Padres, Tom.
00:09The Padres are by no means secure in that wildcard race right now.
00:13But they have really turned it on offensively since the break.
00:17They made those trades to get Robbie Ray and to get Mize.
00:20Unfortunately for them, Mize got hurt on Saturday, so we'll see.
00:24But a signature win, by the way, Saturday for San Diego as well,
00:27down to the Twins big.
00:28They come all the way back to win, and they take that series.
00:32I know they had a tough time against the Mets earlier this week.
00:35But, you know, Tom, I think, you know, with the Cattell Marte stuff going on in Arizona,
00:41like San Diego just kind of needs to hold court.
00:43I don't see them going anywhere, by the way, in the postseason.
00:46But I want to give them a ton of credit because I was not really feeling that team being very
00:51good.
00:51And it seems like finally water has hit its level with them.
00:55Their hitting is starting to come around.
00:56Their pitching has been pretty good.
00:58And credit to the Padres for kind of going for it once again.
01:02Yeah, credit to them.
01:03I will say with the upcoming week that they have going up against the Pirates to start the week
01:09and given the Cattell Marte situation with the Dimebacks, they said, like, this is their time to strike.
01:15Like, this is their time to, yes, they're in a wild card spot right now,
01:19but this is their time to truly extend that lead and feel just a little bit more secure.
01:23If you can get the Padres, you know, going into the postseason, I'm not going to say I'm going to
01:28be buying into them.
01:30But I think their hitting is something that they need to lean on because I don't trust their pitching staff
01:34at all,
01:34especially Casey Mize.
01:35And it was a bit of a freak injury, like slipped down the steps or whatever it was in the
01:39dugout.
01:39That's what caused it.
01:40But outside of him, like, do we trust Michael King?
01:44Do we really trust Robbie Ray against other high leverage or, you know, true top-end starters?
01:49I don't think so.
01:50I think their hitting is what needs to carry them if they go anywhere in the postseason.
01:54Yeah, hard to say, but they do at least hold that final wild card spot as of right now.
01:59And as Tom said, their schedule is a little favorable.
02:02They still also play the Rockies, and they still play the Giants, too.
02:05So those teams in the NL West have a big advantage over Miami and St. Louis down the stretch.
