Who’s hot and who’s not for Padres: June 13-19
Mandatory Credit: Quinn Harris-USA TODAY Sports
Here is a look at who played well and who did not during the Padres’ uneven week.
Hot
The Padres may have a situation at catcher. Alfaro is far out-hitting his counterpart, Austin Nola, even though he is assumed to be the “backup” catcher. However, Alfaro took the majority of the innings behind the plate this week and his bat is a big reason why. He slugged two homers this week, hitting .368 with a 1.218 OPS. He had five hits, including both homers, in his two appearances against the Cubs earlier this week. He owns a 129 OPS+ this season.
Cronenworth continues his surge after that slump to begin the season. On May 21, he was batting .201. He has hit .333 since, including an astounding .552 this week. In Chicago, he collected three hits in three straight games, notching 10 hits and four doubles. His 1.387 OPS and 289 wRC+ for the week paced the team and is now the team’s best hitter with Machado out with an ankle injury.
There are always butterflies when facing your old club. Darvish took the mound at his former home ballpark at Wrigley and dominated the Cubs. For the first time this season, he completed eight innings, while allowing just one earned run and striking out seven. In 12 starts, he has allowed more than three runs just three times while allowing one run or less in six.
Yu Darvish, Wicked 92mph Spltter…and K Scream š± pic.twitter.com/31bmnFvK9H
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) June 14, 2022
If Cronenworth is the hottest hitter on the Padres, Voit is not far behind him. He exploded this week with nine extra-base hits, leading to a gaudy 1.262 OPS. He led the team with three homers and 10 RBI as well. In Tuesday’s 12-5 win over the Cubs, he homered, doubled and drove in five. He is now hitting like the true weapon at DH the Padres hoped they were getting when they swung a trade with the Yankees.
Luke Voit is that Dude šŖ #TimeToShine pic.twitter.com/Xhk1TQvZ1A
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) June 15, 2022
Not
After getting off to a hot start to his Padres and major league career, Azocar has cooled off considerably. This week in limited action this week, he hit .167 with a .500 OPS and 33 wRC+.
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Gore is likely glad to be moving on from pitching against the Rockies for the time being. After a red-hot start that had him atop most NL Rookie of the Year lists, he has plummeted after two starts against Colorado. This week, it was rock bottom at Mile High. In four laborious innings, he allowed three home runs and eight runs total. This marks 14 earned runs over his last two starts, both against the Rockies. He will need to learn how to adjust and bounce back from tough starts. This week was as tough as it gets for Gore.
Another lefty had trouble this week in Manaea. Despite the Padres beating the Cubs on Tuesday, it was in spite of Manaea. In four innings of work, he allowed five earned runs including two homers. He has allowed more than three earned runs in just three of his 12 starts thus far. The veteran has shown a keen ability to bounce back from rough starts like this.
Native of Escondido, CA. Lived in San Diego area for 20 years. Padres fan since childhood (mid-90s). I have been writing since 2014. I currently live near Seattle, WA and am married to a Seattle sports girl. I wore #19 on my high school baseball team for Tony Gwynn. I am a stats and sports history nerd. I attended BYU on the Idaho campus. I also love Star Wars.
We need to break our Coors Field losing streak. Other teams win there, the Padres should be one of those.
With Machado out the guys you wrote about need to continue to play well. We might have many close games during his absence so a unified team stepping up is imperative.