On Sunday, the San Diego Padres finished their second sweep of the Seattle Mariners as they ended the series against the AL team with a 6-0 record.
The Padres did so without major contributions from the top of their lineup, as their All-Star players have yet to produce this season as they have in years past. However, San Diego has maintained a strong record, in large part due to the offensive contributions from the back of their lineup and depth pieces.
Before the Padres take on the Los Angeles Dodgers in their first series of the season, MLB announced some positive news on one of the Padres top offensive pieces.
MLB Names San Diego Padres First Baseman Player of the Week
Following a week in which he hit four home runs, and had a batting average of .625, MLB announced San Diego Padres first baseman Gavin Sheets had won the National League Player of the Week award.
After this hot stretch, Sheets raised his season OPS to .896, which is the second-highest mark on the team, behind catcher Luis Campusano, who has only played in 18 games.
Regarding his series against the Mariners, in which Gavin Sheets hit three home runs, Sheets said, “This was a great weekend. Against a really good pitching staff too. … This week could have gone one of two ways, and I think it made a really good turn.”
The San Diego Union-Tribune’s Kevin Acee wrote:
“Sheets is a huge reason it went the way it did — with the Padres sweeping the Mariners to complete a 4-2 trip before returning home to host the Dodgers for thee games.
He reached base every time he went to the plate yesterday, rounded them twice on home runs, doubled in a run and walked twice to complete a road trip that was unprecedented by any player in the major leagues this season.”
Sheets added regarding his strong week, “If you can get yourself in good counts and get pitches to do damage on and not miss them and stay off the pitches the pitchers want you to chase, I mean, that ‘s hitting in a nutshell. And it’s really hard some weeks. Some weeks you have good weeks, and try to ride these out as long as possible.”
Padres vs Dodgers
The San Diego Padres will face off against the reigning back-to-back World Series winning Los Angeles Dodgers, a team the Padres went 4-9 against last season. While the season is only about a quarter of the way done, San Diego has maintained pace with the Dodgers as they are currently a half game behind Los Angeles in the standings.
Fortunately, the Padres offense seems to have woken up in time. Kevin Acee noted:
“In the Padres’ first 43 games, opposing starting pitchers had thrown 21 quality starts and were allowing the Padres a .205 batting average and 1.9 runs a game. Against the three Mariners starters, all of whom had an ERA of 3.78 or better, the Padres hit .235 and scored a total of 14 runs. Just one of them turned in a quality start.”
MLB Announces Padres News Before Dodgers Series