This was a tough one. The San Diego Padres, despite being the hottest team in MLB, feel to the rival Los Angeles Dodgers in their series opener on Tuesday night. The Friars didn’t score a single run against L.A., and starter Michael King went just four innings after having command issues. He surrendered five runs in one of his worst starts of the season.
Still, the offense did nothing to pick him up. The Friars struck out (10) more times than they got on base (5 H, 2 BB). It was a rough night for
San Diego, who failed to make up ground over the Chicago Cubs after they fell in extra innings to the Miami Marlins. After the Philadelphia Phillies won on Tuesday, the three teams moved back into a three-way tie for the top NL Wild Card spot. The Padres’ could still clinch with a win tonight over L.A. and an Arizona Diamondbacks loss.
Taking the mound
Yoshinobu Yamamoto (LAD) v. Robbie Ray (SD)
Yamamoto has had an incredible season for Los Angeles. Since debuting in 2024, the righty has yet to post an ERA over 3.00. He’s been electric since making the move from Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) to MLB. This year, Yamamoto owns a 2.51 ERA with a minuscule 0.87 WHIP through 179 innings.
It’s been even tougher to score against him lately. In his last seven starts, Yamamoto owns a 1.79 ERA with 57 strikeouts (45.1 IP). He’s worse into the seventh inning in five consecutive starts and has pitched a full seven innings in all of his last three. San Diego will need to turn the tables on Yamamoto quickly, or they’ll lose their final road series of the season before they know what hit them.
Prior to joining the Padres at the Trade Deadline, Ray had surged this season. In his age-34 campaign, the veteran lefty posted a 3.08 ERA for the San Francisco Giants before being shopped. Since joining San Diego, Ray owns a dismal 5.22 ERA in eight starts (39.2 IP).
Most of that damage came in three of his starts. In the other six, Ray has surrendered three or less runs. Command issues have plagued him lately. He’s given up 10 walks and 13 runs in his last three starts. The Padres will need a bounce back performance from the left-hander in order to clinch a playoff spot tonight.
Batter up!
The only productive batter for San Diego last night was, arguably, Luis Campusano. The backstop went 2-for-4 at the plate. That said, the Friars didn’t have many opportunities in the first place. Only two runners reached scoring position in the bullpen game. It was difficult for San Diego to find any kind of groove at the plate with the Dodgers switching pitchers ever inning.
- Fernando Tatis Jr., RF
- Dustin Harris, LF
- Manny Machado, 3B
- Ty France, 1B
- Jackson Merrill, CF
- Luis Campusano, DH
- Xander Bogaerts, SS
- Jake Cronenworth, 2B
- Freddy Fermin, C
The offense has been ridiculously hot lately. Last night was the first time in exactly four weeks since San Diego was last shut out (8/25 vs. Pittsburgh Pirates). Since that day, the Padres have averaged 5.39 runs per game in what was an insane hot streak. Hopefully, that spark isn’t fully gone, but it departed a bit in Game 1 last night.
Relief corps
Thankfully, despite King’s rough start, the bullpen is not depleted for Game 2 tonight. Wandy Peralta and Griffin Canning each covered two valuable innings of work. They each surrendered a run on solo homers, striking out three batters along the way. That coverage allows San Diego to be creative tonight if Ray struggles.
Kyle Hart, Yuki Matsui, Mason Miller, Adrian Morejon, David Morgan, Bradgley Rodriguez and Randy Vásquez are all available tonight. It’s been reported that Jason Adam could rejoin the group ahead of Wednesday, which would mean one pitcher would need to be sent down. It’s likely that that member would be Morgan, though it could just as easily be Canning or Hart.
