Padres well on their way to a 2nd-half sprint

This story was excerpted from AJ Cassavell’s Padres Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Did you notice? The games over the weekend in New York just felt ... different.

At the beginning of the season, the Padres employed a six-man rotation and put a heavy emphasis on the freshness and health of their pitching staff. They operated almost exclusively with game plans that prioritized the long haul. If that meant sacrificing some short-term win probability, so be it.

Make no mistake, manager Bob Melvin still has the big picture in mind. But the games are getting a bit more meaningful, so the Padres are changing their tack. (And, sure, all these games count the same, but the team’s position in the standings has some clarity, and it’s time to put all that freshness built up during the first half to good use.)

The mindset has shifted from a 162-game marathon to something closer to a 68-game second-half sprint. Is this the shift that Melvin had been alluding to during the first half?

"Probably so," he said.

Two things jumped out to me from the weekend:

1. The Padres have decided to employ a five-man rotation. In the first half, it was six, and sometimes seven, but Melvin constantly alluded to the fact that, at some point, he wanted his best five on the mound. When the dog days hit, it's certainly possible the Padres temporarily return to a six-man, but the five-man is likely to be the norm going forward.

The Padres need to win games. Their Wild Card position -- as they learned last season -- is tenuous. Plus, they'd love to throw themselves back in the mix for the No. 4 seed, which would mean hosting a Wild Card Series instead of traveling to a hostile environment. The best way to accomplish those goals is to put your best pitchers on the mound as often as possible.

2. Blake Snell had thrown five excellent innings on Saturday night. The heart of the Mets order was due up -- including two righty bats and a switch-hitter. The matchups were much more favorable for Nabil Crismatt. Melvin, who often deferred to his starters during the first half, was unusually quick with the hook.

"I wanted him to finish on a good note," Melvin said. "We want to string some good games together for [Snell], psychology-wise as well. ... We had a clean inning for the reliever."

Snell was on board, saying only, "It's not my job. It's Bob's job, and I trust Bob."

Point being: It was the correct strategy to go to Crismatt in that spot. But it might’ve preserved the bullpen a bit more if Melvin had given Snell the sixth -- something he did often during the first half.

Just two subtle details that would seem to indicate: We’re getting closer and closer to crunch time.