Padres News: Jake Cronenworth Ready For the Start of the New Season for San Diego

The Padres have a big hole to climb out of if they hope to make the playoffs.

This statement should go without saying, but I'll say it anyway. 

It's been an incredibly hard season for the San Diego Padres, and a team filled with stars but marred by inconsistency finds themselves four and a half games out of a playoff spot -- and needing to jump four teams to get there -- as of Friday afternoon. 

This past week encapsulates their struggles that so far have been a constant theme of their season. 

They lost five out of their six games played last week, and four of those five defeats to the Los Angeles Dodgers and Seattle Mariners came in blowout fashion. 

All in all, the Padres aren't playing like a team that can make the postseason in 2023, but San Diego first baseman Jake Cronenworth is remaining positive, saying to Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune that Friday marks a "new season" for the group, after they had an off day on Thursday. 

“We’ve got 47 games left,” Jake Cronenworth said. “Flush everything that’s happened up to this point. We [had] an off day to start fresh and really kind of forget about what has happened. Friday starts a new season for us. We’ve got ‘X’ amount of series left, and if we win a majority of those series, we’ll put ourselves in a good position. But we need to go out there and do it.” 

If they're going to turn things around though, it won't be easy. 

The Friars' next ten games include seven against the Arizona Diamondbacks -- who are fighting for a playoff spot themselves -- and three against the resurgent Baltimore Orioles, who are 27 games above .500 and lead the gauntlet that is the AL East.

That said, the deficit itself isn't too deep by any means, and if they manage to do well against the Diamondbacks in particular -- they're just ahead of the Padres in the wild card race -- San Diego could very well find themselves in the thick of the playoff chase as the end of August approaches.