Why the Rangers must sweep the Padres

After two close wins over Arizona, the Rangers have bumped their record up to 39-32 on the year. While it has been a bit of a struggle in June with only a 9-12 record, the Rangers have a very good chance to even up that monthly record this weekend at home against the woeful San Diego Padres.

San Diego enters tonight’s game with a 31-40 record and -78 run differential. Only the Nationals have a worse run differential in the major leagues this year. And while the Padres have been relatively good at home (21-15), they are 10-25 on the road. The team’s two best pitchers entering the season – Jake Peavy and Chris Young – are both out with injuries and will miss the series. Padres OF Brian Giles will also miss the series with an injury.

The Rangers have Kevin Millwood, Derek Holland and Matt Harrison slated to pitch the three games of this series against Walter Silva, Kevin Correia and Chad Gaudin of the Padres. Harrison has been struggling badly lately and Correia has pitched the best of anyone for San Diego, but there is no excuse for the Rangers not to take all three games of this series.

Earlier in the year when the Rangers were truly rolling, they were taking advantage of series like this one against inferior teams. In June, the Rangers haven’t had as many games against inferior teams, but have dropped a few close ones that could have made their record look a lot better. If the Rangers don’t sweep this series, the games they lose will be looked back upon as games they really should have won.

There are simply no statistics or any sort of data that shows that San Diego should win a game in this series. The three starters San Diego are pitching have given up 87 earned runs in 158 innings this year, which is an ERA of almost 5.00. Consider tha

t a majority of these innings have been pitched in the National League, with a large percentage of them at quite possibly the most pitcher-friendly park in MLB. For comparison, the three Rangers starters have given up 102 earned runs in 213.2 innings pitched in a tougher league and tougher ballpark. Their ERA comes out to around 4.27.

Even with the recent slump, the Rangers offense has scored 69 more runs than the Padres this year and allowed 23 fewer, again, with a tougher ballpark and a tougher league.

The offense hopefully turned a corner in its most recent game, and facing the Padres this weekend should help them continue to shake this recent funk. It’s crucial to be out of that funk before the Angels come in. If they are, the Rangers might be able to make another statement about the class of the division.