Padres Starting April on a High Note

By Steve Atkinson 

The San Diego Padres are 13-4 and have the best record in baseball. The red hot Padres are in first place in the NL West. It seems the NL West will be tough competition between the Padres, Giants, and Dodgers. Fernando Tatis Jr. Is really lighting it up with home runs and the bullpen has been pretty solid too. Padres had their first lost at home last night to the Cubs and are currently 10-1 at home.

Jackson Merrill signs extension with Padres

I’m super, super excited to keep going to work, keep going to battle every day,” Merrill said. “The trust that’s in this room right now, I’ve never felt it before. I’ve never felt a connection with a city before like I feel here

Jackson Merrill is on the injured list after signing his contract extension with a hamstring. Jake Croneworth has a broken rib and it also on the injured list. But it seems that the next man up mentality is working for this team.

I think every time out, you know that we could show out what we could do,” King said. “We’ve got a really good culture in terms of, like, when you do have a bad one, everybody is around you to support you and allow you to have a good one in your next one. And I think that the pressure from the team is a good one in terms of like, ‘Hey, we’re not gonna have two bad (starts) in a row. Ruben (Niebla, the Padres pitching coach) is also great in terms of keeping the confidence, and then we’re great in terms of just talking it through.”

Tatis Jr. Credits the Padres Pitching staff

Padres had a tough time last week in Chicago against the Cubs maybe because of the cold weather but came back home and didn’t lose until last night. Fernando Tatis Jr. Is really glad at how much this team is vibing early.

Our pitching staff has been doing a great job start to bottom,” Tatis said to The San Diego Union-Tribune’s Kevin Acee. “And, man, it’s fun to play defense behind them. They keep you in the game. They keep pounding the strike zone. And when they’re doing that, we’re all locked in. … It’s just momentum, momentum creating. Starts with them, and then we follow back and it’s just really good baseball all the way around.”

The Padres travel to Houston after closing out their series with the Cubs this afternoon. They then travel to Detroit before closing the month with the Rays at home and a division series with the Giants who are in second place in the division.