Padres-Dodgers: Meet me in September

Have you checked out the Padres 2008 schedule?

It’s totally bizarre.

The Padres open with a team from the NL Central (Houston, March 31) and close vs. a team from the same division (Pittsburgh, Sept. 28.)

When you have five teams in the NL West, somebody … in these cases the Padres … will always be playing outside of the division.

But here’s what is truly unique about the schedule: The Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers will have nine of their 18 meetings this season in September.

This could be a huge advantage for the Padres down the stretch in that they are 23-13 vs. the Dodgers in the past two seasons.

What’s odd scheduling-wise is that the teams play April 4-6 in San Diego and April 11-13 in Los Angeles, and then they don’t meet again until June 10-12 in San Diego.

After that, it’s a long time before their nine meetings in September.

If it does come down to the Dodgers and/or Padres in the NL West, at least the Southern California rivals will greatly be able to determine the division between themselves.

Can the Padres step it up?

The Padres have shown the ability to beat poor teams. But can they defeat the good ones?

We should find out this week as they host the Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers for three games apiece at Petco Park.

The Padres are 9-0 in series this season against teams currently standing in the bottom two spots of their division. They are 0-3 in series against teams in first- and second-place.

Since Milwaukee leads the NL Central and Chicago is in a virtual tie for second with Houston, this will be a week for the Padres to prove themselves.

San Diego is 4-2 against San Francisco and Colorado; as well as being 2-1 vs. St. Louis, Cincinnati, Florida, Washington and Seattle. Those teams are all within the last two places of their respective divisions.

However, the Padres are just 2-4 against the NL West leading Dodgers, and 1-3 vs. second-place Atlanta of the NL East.

If the Padres are ever going to start beating top-quality teams, this week would be a good time to start.

ESPN's Phillips looks like a genius

Credit Steve Phillips for looking like a genius thus far in 2007.

The ESPN analyst more than went out on a limb before the baseball season when he picked Milwaukee to win the NL Central.

At the time, I’m sure most of us were laughing. But look who’s laughing now (Phillips) with Milwaukee leading the NL Central by seven games over the Chicago Cubs.

St. Louis was the obvious preseason pick in the division, coming off its 2006 World Series title. Houston can always be figured on to make a late-season run, and Cincinnati was hot most of last season. Then there are the Cubs who spent $300 million in the offseason; but are still the Cubs (see: losers).

Hardly anybody could have rightfully picked Pittsburgh to win the division, which left Milwaukee as a solid choice to finish fifth.

Obviously, Phillips saw something that the rest of us did not.