It is not secret the San Diego Padres rotation has suddenly become very crowded and difficult decisions are ahead for manager Craig Stammen and president of baseball operation and general manager A.J. Preller. Lucas Giolito is expected to be ramped up to speed and with the big-league club by the weekend. Griffin Canning has made two starts for the Padres and appears to have a firm hold on a rotation spot. With Giolito and Canning joining Michael King and Randy Vasquez, that leaves room for one more
starting pitcher.
The three arms fighting to stay in the rotation are Walker Buehler, German Marquez and Matt Waldron. Buehler pitched very well in his last outing against the St. Louis Cardinals and Marquez had some bright spots in a few of his outings prior to landing on the injured list. Waldron looked great in his last outing against the San Francisco Giants. He followed Bradgley Rodriguez who appeared as the opener in the game. Waldron came on in the second and threw five innings and allowed one run on two hits with seven strikeouts.
Stammen and the Padres deployed Waldron in the same way against the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday with Rodriguez serving as the opener. The rookie right-hander did his part and opened the game with a 1-2-3 first inning with a strikeout. Waldron came on for the second inning and did not allow a run but did allow a solo home run in the bottom of the third inning, which put the Padres behind, 1-0. The trouble for Waldron came in the fourth inning after San Diego scored two runs on a Nick Castellanos two-run single in the top of the inning. With the Padres ahead 2—1, Waldron allowed five runs in the bottom of the fourth, which caused his season ERA to jump to 9.28 on the season, and the Brewers had a 6-2 lead.
San Diego did not go quietly adding a run on a solo home run off the bat of Miguel Andujar in the top of the sixth inning, and another run in the top of the eighth but the Padres were unable to make a full comeback and dropped the first game of the series with the Brewers, 6-4 at American Family Field on Tuesday night. San Diego will try to tie the series when the teams play Game 2 today at 4:40 p.m.
Padres News:
- It was a busy week for the San Diego minor league affiliates and Cheri Bell of Gaslamp Ball provides all the details about the teams at all levels of the system in her weekly recap. Bell also had time to recap the week that was for the Padres and included various tidbits about position players, pitchers and injuries to help keep Padres fans informed.
Baseball News:
- Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes took a no-hitter into the seventh inning and helped his team beat the Colorado Rockies.
- Mike Yastrzemski hit his first home run with the Atlanta Braves to help them beat the Chicago Cubs.
- A.J. Ewing hit a triple and stole a base in his MLB debut with the New York Mets against the Detroit Tigers.
- Zack Wheeler pitched the Philadelphia Phillies past the Boston Red Sox, 2-1.
- The New York Yankees snapped their losing streak with a 6-2 win over the Baltimore Orioles.
- Framber Valdez will return to the mound for the Detroit Tigers on Wednesday.
- The Dodgers added former Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder Alek Thomas in a trade for a prospect.
- Shohei Ohtani homers, but Dodgers drop second game of series to San Francisco Giants.
