The Arizona Diamondbacks offense has had their fair share of problems with scoring runs on a consistent basis this season, but there was a reason to be optimistic because they were going to contend with the San Diego Padres for the first time in a game on Friday night.

The Padres starting rotation has not pitched well this season, and has allowed too many base runners to the opposition. The key to success for Arizona in this game would be to show some patience against Padres pitcher Jason Marquis.

Marquis did have issues with his command in this start, but Arizona was not able to take advantage of the mistakes that he made. There were plenty of chances where they could have added to their score, but they eventually came up short.

The problem for the Diamondbacks is that they lack an identity on offense, and this has hampered their ability to score runs. There are 30 teams in MLB, and all of them have something that makes them unique from the others. There are some teams that rely on speed, while other teams prefer to take a different approach on how they will generate offense for their team.

Arizona is also missing some key players on their roster, and this has had an impact on their performance. One of the players they need to get healthy is outfielder Adam Eaton, who was presumed to be their catalyst on offense.

Once the players that are injured get healthy, Arizona’s identity will begin to take shape.

Chris is the Diamondbacks writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow and interact with him on Twitter. Like Chris on Facebook. Add him to your network on Google