The San Diego Padres are still without a series win this month. The club struggled against Arizona Diamondbacks starter Merrill Kelly last night, scoring just one run on a Manny Machado homer in the second inning. After that, the club managed just two hits. Griffin Canning pitched well, navigating trouble to give up just two runs. Unfortunately, that was all Arizona would need.
Tonight, the Toronto Blue Jays will come to town to face San Diego. The Padres have considerably less momentum heading into
the series, with the Blue Jays having just beat the San Francisco Giants (and almost throwing a no-hitter against them on Wednesday night). Hopefully, San Diego will be able to regain some offensive momentum against Toronto tonight.
Taking the mound
Shane Bieber (TOR) v. JP Sears (SD)
Bieber hasn’t looked great since returning from injury. After surprising many by re-signing with Toronto, Bieber hasn’t helped his free agency case this season. In his first three starts back, the righty’s posted a 9.00 ERA across 13 innings pitched. He’s also posted a ridiculous 2.08 WHIP.
His most recent start against the Seattle Mariners was, by far, his worst. Bieber surrendered seven runs to the Mariners across just four innings pitched. The Padres will look to tag him for that many in the hopes of a series opening win.
Similar to Bieber, Sears has made just three starts this season for San Diego. He’s pitched infinitely better than Bieber, but has still struggled. His high 4.70 ERA is only due to his start against the Chicago Cubs last week. Sears surrendered six runs to the Cubs across just 4 2/3 innings.
Sears rebounded immediately against the Los Angeles Dodgers with five scoreless innings against the rivals. He hasn’t faced Toronto’s lineup very much in the past, which should give him a slight edge over the Jays.
Batter up!
San Diego’s lineup has been resurgent but spotty lately. They’ve scored 29 runs in their last eight games for an average of 3.63 runs per game. Excluding the two games they were shut out, the average bumps up to a much more respectable 4.83 runs per game. The lineup will need to show up against Bieber tonight in order to win the series opener.
- Fernando Tatis Jr., RF
- Jackson Merrill, CF
- Xander Bogaerts, SS
- Manny Machado, 3B
- Gavin Sheets, LF
- Ty France, 1B
- Jake Cronenworth, 2B
- Miguel Andujar, DH
- Luis Campusano, C
Of the Friars, Bogaerts has had the most career success against Bieber. The short owns a .364 batting average and 1.144 OPS against the righty in 11 at-bats. If he can replicate that tonight, it would be a fantastic turnaround to the struggles that Bogaerts has been recently mired in.
Relief corps
After a few tiring weeks, the bullpen has been spared from overuse as of late. That was mostly true last night, with Yuki Matsui, Bradgley Rodriguez, Wandy Peralta and Adrian Morejon covering the final 4 1/3 innings. Each pitched a full frame, with Rodriguez covering 1 1/3 innings for San Diego.
That leaves Jhony Brito, Kyle Hart, Ron Marinaccio and Mason Miller as options for tonight. Brito looked solid in his 2026 debut on Tuesday night but hasn’t been used since. Hart and Marinaccio have been rough lately and will look to turn things around facing the Jays.
