Need proof? Two simple questions:

1. Last season, if the Padres went 7-5 against three teams with .500 or better records on their longest road trip of the year, would you have been happy?
2. This year, now that the Padres have done just that, are you happy?

Good road trip, no question, but the Padres easily could have won 10 of those games. This isn’t sour grapes, it’s simply a measure of how far the club has come in a few months. We expect more of this team. And from the looks of it, they’re starting to expect more of themselves.

The Pads are doing the types of things that contenders do. David Wells and Jake Peavy hit the DL? No problem: Enter Justin Germano and Dennis Tankersley. That game Tank pitched against Milwaukee on Saturday was one of the most irritating of the year in terms of losing a very winnable contest, but it also gave renewed hope for a guy many may have given up on.

Tankersley had one bad inning where he allowed three unearned runs on a bases-loaded double by the opposing pitcher. But over the other five innings he worked, he didn’t even allow a baserunner. And nine strikeouts in six innings is always nice.

Meantime, Peavy, the NL’s ERA leader, is expected to miss 4-6 weeks. Now is a good time for Tankersley, Germano, and the rest of the rotation to step up. To that end, Ismael Valdez pitched a terrific game Sunday to help end the road trip on a high note. And how about Brian Lawrence. Check this out:

starts     IP  H ER HR BB SO GB FB  ERA BB/9 SO/9 GB/FB
first 6  30.1 46 19  4 14 19 47 38 5.64 4.15 5.64  1.24
last 5   31.0 29 11  5  8 28 48 19 3.19 2.32 8.13  2.53

Hits and walks down, strikeouts and groundball-to-flyball ratio up? Most encouraging.

What else? Oh yeah, Ryan Klesko finally landed on the DL. Klesko, who had been hitting .261/.351/.357, is on the shelf with a rib cage injury. Let’s hope he can get fully healed from that and whatever else may have been ailing him this year. The Padres need his power bat in the lineup. Sean Burroughs can get away with a sub-.100 ISO, but this club needs more out of their #5 hitter.

Jon Knott, who was tearing up the PCL to the tune of .308/.370/.627, has been called up to replace Klesko and flied out as a pinch-hitter in his big-league debut Sunday at Milwaukee. Knott will spend most of his time with the Pads on the bench (ostensibly as Brian Buchanan’s backup, lucky man), although the TV guys indicated that he may DH some of the games in Boston and/or New York. Speaking of the TV guys, Rick Sutcliffe amusingly compared Knott to Cincinnati’s Adam Dunn. I know you know better, but please don’t expect Dunn-like production from Knott. No disrespect to the kid, but he simply doesn’t have Dunn’s talent.

Terrence Long, meantime, will get most of Klesko’s at-bats. Long is hitting .310/.359/.429 in 84 trips to the plate so far.

Other News

• I’ve learned that Ducksnorts has been entered into something called the World Series of Blogs. Head on over there and vote for this site if you think we deserve it. If you don’t, that’s cool. You can keep reading anyway.
• No more postcards from Padres (U-T). Solid summary of the just-completed road trip.
• Padres talk to Royals about five-tooler (U-T). Nice to be on the opposite side of these rumors. Way early yet, but Xavier Nady is mentioned as someone KC might be interested in as part of a potential deal for Carlos Beltran.

Rockies are in town for three. In a rematch of last Wednesday’s game in Denver, Adam Eaton and Jason Jennings, hook up tonight. Usual time, usual channel. Now would be a real good time for Eaton to find himself.