From Last Night:

• Strasburg erratic, but decent in loss against Kluber’s 8 IP, 8K
• Nieuwenhuis walks off on Marmol, lifts Mets
• Blanks homers late to back Richard and the Padres to their 6th straight win
• Iwakuma struggles as Colon rolls, A’s win 10-2
• The Angels get 5 in the 9th, but Pujols Ks with the tying run on 2nd to lose to the Yanks

• 3 HR lift Wang and the Jays over the Rangers
• Astros sweep the White Sox
• Greinke struggles in first start since brawl, falls to Pirates and Cole
• Lester Ks 8, walks 0 despite giving up 5 ER in 5 innings

What I’m Watching Today:

• Shelby “Must-Watch” Miller faces the Cubs (7p Eastern)
• Liriano faces Leake for NL Central glory (7p Eastern)
• Turner and Corbin in the desert (930p Eastern)

The Big Question:

• What should we think of the Padres?

I ranked the Padres 22nd coming into the season and 26th and 27th entering May and June in the New English D power rankings, but here they come in the standings with 6 straight wins and the team above .500 to 35-34 and just 2 back in the West. I was bullish on them coming into the season, but the pitching was pretty bad and I sort of gave up. They’re dead last in WAR (-1.9) and in the bottom 3 in park adjusted ERA, FIP, and xFIP. And they haven’t really gotten better in the last few weeks despite going 17-12 over their last 19. They’re surprisingly 5th in position player WAR, but you can’t compete at the big league level with pitching that bad.