Now that the 13 straight games against the Giants and Dodgers have ended, some musings:

• As mentioned in my last post, I was expecting 3-3 for the first week. Now that the second week and all 13 games are done, going into this week I was thinking 7-6 would be good (2-2 against the Giants and 2-1 against the Dodgers or some combination of 4-3 this week) so to end up 8-5 after these 13 games is great and I would have signed up for that easily if you told me that two weeks ago before these 13 games started.
• Starting pitching held up really well against the Dodgers with Nick Pivetta closing out the series with 6 innings and two runs. What was a red flag last weekend in LA (starting with Michael King going on the IL again and the early inning struggles by Dylan Cease and Yu Darvish against the Dodgers) was a bright spot this weekend and is the cyclical nature of baseball and its long season. What Yu Darvish and Nestor Cortes did the first two games of 6 innings of one hit each was impressive, especially when I saw this:

Yu Darvish and Nestor Cortes both pitched six innings of one-hit ball vs. the Dodgers. It's the first time opposing starters have pitched six or more innings with one or no hits allowed vs. the Dodgers in back-to-back games at least since the team moved to LA in 1958.

— Sonja Chen (@SonjaMChen) August 24, 2025

• As I also mentioned in the last post, we need to do something about Arraez considering how much better Ryan O’Hearn and Gavin Sheets are playing, especially with both playing all the time the past week while Jackson Merrill was out. This weekend didn’t help matters with Arraez hitting into more double plays (2) than he had hits (1). If he can’t be a bench guy like what’s happened to Elias Diaz and how Freddy Fermin is playing 4-5 times a week (versus before with Diaz and Martin Maldonado where it was more of a 50% split), then at least move him down in the lineup as I mentioned in my last post. He’s killing the lineup between Tatis and Machado right now when we could have a much better hitter like O’Hearn there.
• The decision to go to Jeremiah Estrada today in the 7th inning of a tied game with all his struggles against the Dodgers was another move by Mike Shildt that didn’t make sense except for his continued stubbornness on sticking with guys regardless of what’s happened (just like Luis Arraez in the two hole). Estrada gave up a home run last night when it was 3-0 and Kevin Acee wrote before the game today about his major struggles against the Dodgers. So considering these stats, that Estrada had pitched the night before and struggled, not sure why the move wasn’t to go to David Morgan (who hadn’t pitched either of the past two games) and then go to Mason Miller and Robert Suarez who both didn’t pitch last night either. It doesn’t help when Shildt gives the defiant response as shown in the below audio that doesn’t really give any good rationale to why he put Estrada in other than the 7th inning is his lane, which doesn’t make sense considering how he’s mixed and matched the bullpen and when guys appear in games all year.

Mike Shildt discussed his decision to use Jeremiah Estrada in the 7th, being tied atop the NL West this late in the season and another strong outing from Nick Pivetta: pic.twitter.com/mmVYoRXnO0

— 97.3 The Fan (@973TheFanSD) August 24, 2025

• I do get why Shildt left Estrada in there to face the left hitting Dalton Rushing after two of the first three guys got on base versus going to Adrian Morejon since the Dodgers would have pinch hit with the righty Will Smith against the lefty Morejon. Even though I would have preferred that matchup because of how well Morejon has pitched this year and considering Estrada’s struggles, sticking with Estrada there is understandable. What isn’t, was going to Estrada in the first place.
• Now it’s time for the conclusion of the Vedder Cup with the Seattle Mariners. The Marines have played the Padres tough recently (3-1 against the Padres in 2022, 2023, 2024 and swept the Padres in a three game series at Petco earlier this year) so even though the Mariners have struggled recently (3-7), I’m hoping the Padres can play well and win one or two up there in Seattle.