Volquez has had his fair share of issues this season. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

It has been bad enough that their lineup has struggled to produce without the help of Chase Headley and Yasmani Grandal, and the once reliable bullpen has been inconsistent as of late.  But San Diego’s starting pitchers have really had their fair share of issues over the first two weeks of the 2013 regular season.  In fact, through the first 12 games of the 2013 campaign, Eric Stults is the only Friar starter in the “win column.”

Unfortunately for the Padres, the rest of their staff (including Stults) have not fared very well through their first two/three outings, especially the team’s #1 starter Edinson Volquez.

Earlier this Spring, I discussed how Volquez would need to step up his game and his control to help the Padres make-shift starting rotation this season.  Since Volquez toed the rubber to begin the 2013 campaign at Citi Field, he has been anything but effective, and the Padres will definitely need him to step up his game over the coming weeks.

• Against the Mets in his first start of the year, Edinson definitely had his fair share of issues.  The veteran right-hander lasted only 3.0 innings, but threw 79 pitches to get 9 outs!  Over those 79 pitches, Volquez allowed 6 runs on 6 hits and gave up 3 walks on the afternoon.

• Volquez followed up his Opening Day performance with an improved but still down outing against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field.  Overall, Edinson managed to hang in there for 6.0 innings, but it took him 102 pitches to get that far through the game.  While his control was better (1 walk to 1 strikeout), he still allowed 4 runs on 9 hits, and was eventually charged with the loss.

• This past Saturday, Volquez probably had his worst start of the year, and once again it was the Rockies who knocked him around the ballpark.  Edinson only pitched 3.1 innings and was yanked after he threw 96 pitches and could not seem to keep Colorado’s hitters off of the basepaths.  Overall, Volquez allowed 7 runs (6 earned) on 6 hits, and gave up 3 walks to boot.

For the record, the Padres’ offense has been downright anemic this year, and definitely not afforded Volquez or any of San Diego’s other starters consistent run support so far in 2013.  But that is definitely no excuse for Volquez to lead the National League in earned runs through three starts (17) already this year.  I mean, 17 runs allowed over a three game span would make any offense pressed to produce at a high level.  Heck, San Diego’s hitters would have to have plated almost 6 runs per game for the team just to stay in/win some of those contests.

An 0-3 record, an 11.68 ERA over 12.1 inning pitched, a 7 to 9 walk to strikeout ratio, and a .356 batting average allowed is simply not going to help a team without its two best hitters.  Plus, cleanup hitter Carlos Quentin will miss the next week due to his suspension for teaching Zack Greinke not to run his mouth to people bigger than him.

San Diego needs someone to emerge from their staff to log consistent innings and keep games competitive early, because their collective performance so far has been quite underwhelming.  Hopefully Volquez, along with the rest of the Padres’ starting staff, can get back on track and at least give their bullpen some leads to work with and their hitters some peace of mind to know that they do not have to go out and score 5-6 runs per game.

Stats Courtesy of: Baseball Reference

The Padres put up a 5-run 8th inning to win their home opener against Los Doyers 9-3. Will Venable led the offense with 2 hits, a solo homerun and a base clearing triple. Oh and he had 2 walks. And stole a base. And scored twice.

The game was close to going the other way in the first inning. Clayton Richard loaded the bases with 1 out but got Juan Uribe to ground into an inning ending double play.

In the bottom of the inning, Venable opened up the scoring with a solo shot to deep right field. Jedd Gyorko extended the lead with an rbi single after Yonder Alonso hit a 2 out double.

In the second, Richard escaped trouble again getting a double play after the Dodgers had runners on first and second with nobody out. He labored through five innings giving up 8 hits and 3 walks and allowed 2 earned runs. Unfortunately, the two runs was a 2-run homerun by Uribe that barely cleared the new right field wall. (The Padres have now been out homered 11-3 this season.)

Nick Hundley gave the Padres the lead with a homerun off the Western Metal Supply building in the bottom of the fifth. As much as I want Grandal to come back, its so good seeing Hundley make use of his playing time.

After the Dodgers tied the game in the seventh, Mark Kotsay came up to pinch-hit in the bottom of the inning with Cameron Maybin on second. Do yourself a favor and watch the highlight of Kotsay’s double on MLB.com. Any faith you lost in the team this season will be restored after watching it, I promise.

In the eighth, Chris Denorfia would come through with a first pitch single to bring in Alexi Amarista. Everth Cabrera followed with a walk to load the bases for Venable who ripped a triple to right center clearing the bases.

As much fun as it was to watch this sort of offensive production and clutch hitting, the game did have some low spots. Richard threw 99 pitches through only five innings and gave up his fourth home run in just two starts. Left-handed specialist Joe Thatcher, gave up an RBI hit to the only batter he faced. Yes it was Adrian Gonzalez but still.

Enjoy this win Padres fans because come tomorrow’s work shift or class, we might be eating whatever crap we talked today about last nights game.

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Apr 4, 2013; New York, NY, USA; San Diego Padres starting pitcher Eric Stults (53) throws a pitch against the New York Mets at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Jim O

The Padres started off the year losing two of three to the New York Mets at Citi Field. While they looked virtually uncompetitive in the first two games of the series, they salvaged the finale with a great pitching performance from a combined six Padre pitchers. The Padres now head to Colorado to face the Rockies in a three-game weekend set before returning to San Diego for their home opener against the Dodgers on Tuesday.

A few things about the opening series stood out to me.

If the Padres don’t pitch, they don’t win

Nothing has changed on this front. The Padres will go as far as their pitching takes them this season, just as it has for many years. They cannot and will not “out-slug” anyone, although I do think the offense is improved, as I mentioned in a post from a couple weeks ago. Just look at the results from the first three games. Eric Stults and the bullpen combined for 14 strikeouts in a 2-1 win on Thursday. During the first two games, which were blow-out losses, the Padres gave up a combined 19 runs and 21 hits. The Mets offense isn’t exactly the 1927 Yankees and, while it was just one outing for each of them, it’s a little concerning that veterans Edinson Volquez and Clayton Richard couldn’t pitch well in a pitching-friendly environment, given the colder weather and spacious dimensions of Citi Field.

MLB has attendance issues

I don’t care if overall attendance has been increasing over the years, and I don’t care that overall attendance was the 5th highest ever in 2012. Some of that data is skewed because of bigger ballparks and a massive contrast between the top of the pack (Phillies, Yankees, Rangers) and the bottom (Tampa Bay, Cleveland, Houston). Additionally, I think 2012 was a bit of an anomaly because there were several teams that had been virtually irrelevant in previous years, and subsequently had very low attendance numbers, who either made the playoffs or were competitive throughout much of the season and, therefore, had above-average attendance numbers (Nationals, Orioles, A’s, Pirates). Much like college basketball, I go by the eye test. And I don’t need any statistics to look around at some of these ballparks and see all of the empty seats. Oh and by the way, it’s only day 4 of the season.  It’s terrible for TV and the lack of a full ballpark creates no buzz in the atmosphere. Even staple organizations like the Yankees and Red Sox are having trouble selling out, which was pretty much a given over the last decade. Maybe as the weather gets warmer and basketball ends, fans will get more passionate about attending ball games.

At least the Padres aren’t the Astros 

No real information to report here. If you follow baseball, you see how bad the Astros are and will be this season. It will be a long season in Houston. As a Padres fan, it’s good to try and keep these things in perspective.