Padres vs. Diamondbacks: A Surprisingly Intense Series

And I'll tell you what, this is all of a sudden kind of under the radar out west, but it's been a pretty good series here, the Padres and the Diamondbacks battling. And now we got Casey Mize, right? So we got the other Detroit pitcher there, gonna make his debut with the Padres. It's been 11 days since we've last seen him. Brad is, he is what he is, he's a 5ERA pitcher who walks a lot of guys. This too feels like we could be getting some runs tonight in Arizona. I don't like guys that change their routine, that he sat, thought he was gonna be traded, wasn't traded when he thought he was gonna, hasn't pitched in 11 days. This, to me, wouldn't shock me if Mize, much like Schuble, makes a couple of mistakes, and next thing we know, Arizona wins his game here tonight. Yeah, I still do like Arizona. I would say that San Diego right now, Joe, appears to be surging here. The Padres, I think, have more home runs than anybody since the All-Star break. And now, all of a sudden, they've got a couple pitchers here, and you know the back end of their bullpen is really good too. Arizona's gotta wake up a little bit here and get going, or they're gonna get lapped by the Padres here. And they just injected some serious life into that team, adding two starting pitchers here at the trade deadline. So yeah, look, I do like Arizona, and I still think that they've got a great shot to win it, but it's gonna be a little dicey for them. I'm just watching the Padres, Joe, play better. I'm watching them play much, much better now. And I'm a little concerned that they go on this big run here and maybe capture that third wild card. But you know, 40-some-odd games to go, a long way to go.