At the All-Star Break, the biggest surprise in the first half of the season was the San Diego Padres. With a record of 51-37, the Padres have the fourth-best winning percentage at the All-Star Break in franchise history. Only the 1998, 1984 and 1982 Padres had a higher winning percentage at the break - and the 1998 and '84 teams both advanced to the World Series (the 1982 team finished 81-81 and ended up in fourth place in the division).

Mat Latos will need to stay strong.

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More important to this group of guys, they lead the National League West by two games over the Colorado Rockies and the Los Angeles Dodgers. This despite a six-game road trip to Washington and Colorado where the Padres won only two games.

But as they have all season, the Padres showed resilience by rallying from a three-run defecit to beat the Rockies 9-7 on Sunday. An important win, not just because it kept the Padres all alone atop the NL West, but also for the mindset of a team that no one expected to contend at all in 2010, much less have the third-best record in the Majors at the All-Star break.

"To push Colorado two games back instead of having them tied with us gave us a little breathing room during the All-Star Break," says All-Star closer Heath Bell. "We know it's going to be a tight race with the Dodgers and the Giants and Colorado. We're all good teams fighting for the division, and if we do exactly what we did during the first half, we'll win the second half."

"We like our chances," Bell adds. "We feel good. We're going to go home, rejuvinate and kick some butt when the second half comes around."

The Padres went into the All-Star break with a pitching staff that boasted the lowest ERA (3.25) in Major League Baseball along with the largest run differential in the National League. As a team, they have scored 376 runs and allowed 304 for a +72 run differential.

Right-hander Mat Latos exploded in his first full season in the big leagues. The 22 year-old pitcher leads the Padres in wins (10), strikeouts (99) and has the lowest ERA for a Padres starter (2.45).

The only concern with Latos is his workload. Last season, he pitched 123 innings between the minors and the majors, and the Padres were hoping to keep his innings at less than 180 this season so as to avoid overworking his young arm. So far, Latos has pitched 106 2/3 innings and manager Bud Black has said he plans to work with the pitching rotation after the All-Star break to give Latos some extra rest in between starts in order to keep him available later in the season.

It's also in an effort to keep him from tiring out. Last season, Latos won four of his first five games after getting called up in the middle of July. He didn't win any of his last five starts and his ERA was 7.71 over those last five outings.

The Padres also lead the National League in fielding percentage (.990) and their offense has shown signs of life too. Despite losing four of six on their last road trip, the Padres rapped out at least 10 hits in all but one game and scored 37 runs.

No surprise, their leading hitter is first baseman Adrian Gonzalez. After a slow start, Gonzalez turned it around in June and early July to earn his third straight trip to the All-Star game and reach the break with a .301 batting average, 18 home runs and 56 RBI. He said that he is recovering an from an unspecified right shoulder injury that started to feel better around the 4th of July weekend.

Even more important, Gonzalez has avoided trade talk which pestered him non-stop through the off-season and the early part of this season. Under team control through the 2011 season, Gonzalez has high trade value for the Padres, and team owner Jeff Moorad has said they will not be able to afford Gonzalez when he becomes a free agent. But with the Padres success this season, trade talks have focused on brining Gonzalez some help instead of shipping him out of town.

"It's really encouraging," Gonzalez said recently. "I'm just happy to be here now and looking at getting into the playoffs and not where I could possibly go. So it's great for my focus and for the team's focus as well."

The Padres schedule after the All-Star break shapes up favorably. With 25 of their next 38 games against bottom feeders like Pittsburgh, Arizona, Milwaukee and the Chicago Cubs, a continued run at the top of the National League West appears likely. They had better take advantage of that stretch because in September, they play 26 of 31 games against teams that are currently in playoff contention.