Jake Roth – USA TODAY Sports
Everyone expects the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers to battle fiercely for the NL West crown this season, but don’t be surprised if the San Diego Padres join them as serious contenders in 2015. Much attention has been paid to the new-look Padres, and they’ve backed up the hype over the first few games of this young season.
Petco Park, which is sometimes jokingly referred to as “AT&T South” due to the large amount of Giants fans who attend games in San Diego, has generated an electric home field advantage over the last three days. Padres fans appear to be highly enthusiastic about their revamped ball club and have been applauding particularly loud for newcomer Matt Kemp. On Saturday, they saw their new ace James Shields shut down the Giants’ offense while the Padres’ batters clobbered Madison Bumgarner. The Giants, who continue to collect injuries early on this season, have only been able to muster three runs spread over the first three games against their freshly motivated divisional opponent.
Giants fans might remember that the 2010 Padres fought them for the division title all the way until the final game of that season. This year has a chance to play out similarly, except new Padres general manager A.J. Preller has made sure to overstuff his team with offensive talent. Their pitching staff and bullpen remain above average, setting San Diego up as a major threat if Derek Norris and Yonder Alonso continue to hit the ball well alongside Kemp. Though it’s still early in the season, many observers have commented that the 2015 Padres seem to posses a renewed competitive energy that wasn’t on display before the arrival of Preller.
For the Giants, they have one more game against the feisty Padres before playing their home opener in San Francisco. The team will hope to escape San Diego without incurring another injury, as they’ve already seen Matt Cain, Brandon Belt and Casey McGehee sidelined during this road trip. They should be pleased with the early season performances of Tim Lincecum and Nori Aoki, but so far the Giants haven’t looked intimidating as defending World Series champions. As they head back to the Bay Area, Bruce Bochy will surely implore his club to approach the 2015 Padres as a legitimate threat to their reign of success.
Kit Duggan writes about baseball for RantSports. You can follow him on Facebook and link up on Google.
