Not much happening today, unless you want to count yet another division lead change. The thing is, this division lead hasn't changed in almost four months.
Pending the Giants' throttling of the Dodgers (they're ahead 8-2 in the 8th right now), the Giants will overtake first place in the NL West, not too long after the Padres dropped the first of a four-game series in St. Louis tonight.
While the Padres are a better team than both of their NL West competitors, the Giants and Rockies, they may indeed get shafted by what is turning out to be an extremely difficult schedule here in September. After sweeping the Dodgers back on September 5-7, the Padres played four against the Giants and three against the Rockies before traveling to St. Louis. After the weekend, the Padres return home to the Dodgers again but then play Cincinnati, Chicago, and San Francisco to close the season (what an epic series that Giants one could be in October, eh?).
Then you have the Giants, who draw Milwaukee this weekend and then Chicago, Colorado, Arizona, and San Diego to close the season. Or the Rockies, who have two more series against the Dodgers and one against Arizona left. Here's your difference between all three teams: the Giants and Rockies each have three series remaining against losing teams. The Padres? One. One! In a tight division race, those six extra gimme games the Rockies and Giants get are huge. In fact, they will probably determine the outcome of the division.
That means this weekend features enormous NL West implications. While San Diego is in St. Louis, the Giants get the Brewers at home and the Rockies travel to Dodger Stadium. Gimme games for the Rockies and Giants. If they lose those series, it's going to be huge for the Padres. If they take care of business, San Diego needs to watch out.
All I know right now is that if I was a Padres fan, I'd find myself asking, "Where's the BCS strength of schedule ranking when you need it?"
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