The Padres were down 7-2 after five innings but battled back to tie the game after eight and won it an inning later. At the start of spring training, the biggest concern was starting pitching because it was thought the Padres had some good middle relievers to set up the best closer in baseball in Trevor Hoffman. That hasn't been the case. The starters are not much better. Clement on Saturday gave up seven runs, including two home runs, in five innings.
Most ERAs are higher playing in Arizona where most of the Padres' exhibition games are played.
Still, more than seven runs a game is unacceptable. If healthy, we will take our chances with our bullpen. If we get our starters into the sixth or seventh inning we'll take our chances. Today was not the kind of day we wanted. We prefer our pitchers to go deeper into the game.