With a payroll under $40 million, the San Diego Padres are in first place with a .600 winning percentage, reports 619Sports.Net's Craig Elsten.
Nick Hundley’s pinch-hit RBI single with two outs in the 11th gave the Padres another taut, well-pitched home victory on Sunday, this time a 3-2 win over the Washington Nationals. The win gives the Padres a two-game cushion in the NL West heading into one of baseball’s traditional signposts, Memorial Day.
The formula for the first 50 games has been well established, and was repeated with little variation on Sunday. The Padres got a great effort from their starter (Jon Garland: 7 IP, 2 ER), saw the indomitable bullpen troika of Gregerson, Adams and Bell blank the opposition, and waited out their opponents until they could take advantage.
Amazingly, the Padres have fashioned a .600 winning percentage despite scoring 4 runs or fewer in 31 of their 50 games. They have scored 0, 1 or 2 runs in 16 of 50 games, and yet have gone 6-10 in those contests. San Diego’s 2.98 team ERA leads all of the major leagues.
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