The San Diego Padres were officially eliminated from postseason contention on Wednesday night with a 5-2 loss at home to Cole Hamels and the Phillies.
Padres mathematically eliminated from MLB playoffs
San Diego can turn its eyes toward 2015 after being mathematically eliminated from postseason contention.
Ralph Freso
The Philadelphia ace left-hander struck out nine and walked one in his seven innings, allowing only one run for his ninth win of the season.
The loss dropped San Diego to 70-81 on the season. The Pirates (81-70) currently lead the second Wild Card spot, but with Pittsburgh's three-game weekend series against the Brewers (79-73) the second Wild Card winner is assured of having at least 82 wins, one more than the maximum possible for the Padres.
A disastrous year for the team’s offense proved costly in the win column and now it will need to start considering how to address those issues going into 2015.
The Padres were baseball’s worst offensive team in practically every way imaginable this season, on pace to finish last in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and runs scored, averaging just 3.24 runs per game. Playing in Petco Field hasn’t helped, but the team’s wRC+ of 81 is still several points worse than the next-best team in the game.
There's simply no combination of pitching and defense that could've made up for such ineptitude at the plate, and the Padres proved that true. They're currently 15½ games behind first-place Los Angeles in the NL West, and have failed to take advantage of strong performances on the mound from the likes of Tyson Ross, Andrew Cashner and others.
The bright spots in the lineup for San Diego were limited, with Seth Smith being the only regular providing anything resembling good production and Yangervis Solarte and Rene Rivera adding some solid performance once they earned bigger roles. Guys like Everth Cabrera, Jedd Gyorko, Yonder Alonso and Will Venable were all disappointing, however, and that was enough to sink the team's hopes.
See More:
