German Marquez and JP Sears were squarely in the mix in the competition to decide the fifth spot in the starting rotation for the San Diego Padres. Their respective candidacies took a hit in San Diego’s 10-1 loss to the Kansas City Royals at the Peoria Sports Complex on Thursday. Marquez had easily his worst outing of the spring and that was in large part due to his lack of command. Marquez finished his outing after 1.2 innings pitched. He allowed six earned runs on four hits with four walks and a strikeout.
Sears fared a little better considering he pitched four innings, but he allowed three runs on five hits with six strikeouts. The plus for Sears is that he kept the ball in the yard and he did not allow a walk. The Padres offense was held in check throughout the game and managed just five hits. The lone run scored for San Diego came on the strength of a Ramon Laureano home run in the bottom of the sixth inning. The Padres will look to have a better outing when they take on the Athletics at Hohokam Stadium in Mesa, Ariz. today at 1:05 p.m.
Padres News:
- Padres manager Craig Stammen announced on Thursday that reliever Bryan Hoeing will have surgery on his elbow and will miss the 2026 season. On a positive note, starter Matt Waldron faced hitters in live at-bats and seems to be ramping up to make his return.
- The Friar Faithful have not seen him pitch for their beloved Padres, but we have been told Griffin Canning could prove to be a formidable back-end starter when he his cleared to play. Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune made Canning the focus of his Padres roster review.
Baseball News:
- A 2013 baseball card featuring Aaron Judge sold for a record $5.2 million.
- The Boston Red Sox signed free agent reliever Danny Coulombe to a one-year deal and placed Romy Gonzalez on the 60-day IL.
- Zack Wheeler continues to work back to a return to the mound for the Philadelphia Phillies. He threw his first live batting practice since his injury on Thursday.
- Quinn Priester, starting pitcher for the Milwaukee Brewers, will begin the season on the IL. The team is hoping his return will be sooner than later if he can avoid surgery.
- The New York Yankees reassigned their top prospect George Lombard Jr. to Minors camp.
- MLB Opening Night will be shown on Netflix and MLB.com has all the information you need to know to be able to watch it.
WBC News:
- Team USA made some roster moves adding some players and removing others. Manager Mark DeRosa continued to try to clarify his thoughts and comments before the matchup against Team Italy.
- Dominican Republic looks to continue its WBC dominance against Korea today at 3:30 p.m. PST.
- The US takes on Canada today at 5 p.m. PST.
- Japan takes on Venezuela on Saturday at 6 p.m. PST.
- Puerto Rico faces Italy on Saturday at Noon. PST.
