Maybe it’s the anticipation of having waited until nearly June to face them for the first time, but this series against the San Diego Padres has more than lived up to incredibly high expectations. A couple of days after seeing the Friars’ ace completely shut the high-powered Dodgers down, now it’s time to face probably one of the key figures in making this San Diego team one capable of competing for the NL West crown—well, at least so far. Randy Vásquez’s breakout is partially holding this rotation
together in the absence of the currently sidelined Nick Pivetta, and his 2.68 ERA speaks for itself.
Vásquez isn’t exactly a new kid on the block, and he put up pretty respectable numbers last year, but it’ll be the first taste of his new version for the Dodgers. Vásquez has benefited from increased velocity to take a fastball that was surrendering a .253 batting average last year to a .182 mark in 2026. His 22.4% strikeout rate isn’t anything to write home about in a vacuum, but considering where he was just the season prior (13.77%), it’s a massive improvement.
The hero of last night’s dramatic win that saw the Dodgers score a run against Mason Miller without recording a hit versus the fireballer, Andy Pages, had fond memories of facing previous versions of Vázquez. Pages needed just six career at-bats against him to go deep twice, more than any other Dodger has. Still focused on Vásquez, not only does he lead San Diego with five wins, but the Friars have come out on the right side of the scoreboard in all but one of his nine starts.
It figures that the Dodgers won’t need a whole lot offensively to take care of this one, not if Shohei Ohtani carries on pitching the way he has. And they’ll certainly need him to, having pushed the bullpen quite a bit in that 5-4 win last night with Emmet Sheehan completing just four innings.
Wednesday’s game info
- Teams: Dodgers at Padres
- Ballpark: Petco Park, San Diego
- Start time: 5:40 p.m. PT
- TV: SportsNet LA
- Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 AM (Spanish)
