On Wednesday night, Blake Snell of the San Diego Padres completely stymied the St. Louis Cardinals lineup for seven innings.
He didn’t allow any runs and struck out 13, and the bullpen finished the job for the important victory.
On Tuesday, it was Mike Clevinger who blanked the Cards for 5.2 innings: he wasn’t as dominant as Snell, but produced a scoreless outing nevertheless.
On Sunday, Yu Darvish manhandled the Arizona Diamondbacks for six scoreless innings and eight strikeouts in a 6-1 victory.
The previous day, the Friars blanked the D-backs 2-0 thanks to a very good outing by Joe Musgrove, with six scoreless frames and eight punchouts.
Four games, and just one earned run allowed by the four aces and the Padres bullpen.
The Padres Fearsome Foursome
That’s a record, in case you were wondering.
“The @Padres are the first team in MLB history to strike out 40+ batters while allowing no more than 1 run over a 4-game span,” Stats by STATS tweeted.
The @Padres are the first team in MLB history to strike out 40+ batters while allowing no more than 1 run over a 4-game span.
— Stats By STATS (@StatsBySTATS) September 22, 2022
Add swingman Nick Martinez, starter Sean Manaea, and a very good bullpen to that group, and you have one of MLB’s best pitching staffs peaking at the right time.
The Padres are 83-66 and firmly in possession of one of the National League’s Wild Card spots, and it has been mainly because of their excellent pitching staff.
With Juan Soto struggling to hit for power as of late and Fernando Tatis Jr. out with a suspension, Manny Machado has had to pick up the slack offensively.
However, as long as the foursome mentioned above is pitching like that, San Diego will stand a chance against everybody.
They may not be favorites to advance past the Division Series, but with those arms, you never know.
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