The San Diego Padres took plenty of momentum into their series opener against the Atlanta Braves after beating the Kansas City Royals, 19-2, on Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough. The club fell short versus the Braves despite Manny Machado and Ty France slugging two solo shots against Atlanta.
Multiple poor decisions by manager Craig Stammen regarding the pitching staff hurt the Padres in their eventual one-run loss. Starter JP Sears was taken out after five stellar innings. He had
thrown just 55 pitches to that point and seemed ready to enter the sixth. Instead, Wandy Peralta came in and gave up the eventual game-winning run on an Ozzie Albies homer to right field. Stammen has had plenty of question marks surrounding the remaining length of his tenure in San Diego. Moves like that only exacerbate the problem for the Friar Faithful.
Taking the mound
Reynaldo López (ATL) v. Walker Buehler (SD)
López has been one of the most consistent starters in all of baseball this season. The veteran right-hander owns a 3.50 ERA through 61 2/3 innings pitched this season. The righty has missed some time due to injury as well as his suspension earlier this season. But the Padres will still be facing a formidable opponent tonight.
That said, the Friars have had some success against him in the past. Chief among them is Jackson Merrill, with a career .375 batting average in eight at-bats. Other stars like Fernando Tatis Jr. and Machado? Not so much. The two have a combined .222 average against López.
Buehler has yet to find a cure for his July woes. After a ridiculously good June that saw the righty post a 1.71 ERA across five starts, Buehler has surrendered 20 runs in his last three starts. That would mean something if he had pitched six innings in each, but he’s only pitched 11 innings in total. It’s been an historic decline for Buehler.
Thankfully, none of the Braves have much experience against the right-hander. Hopefully, that will give Buehler a slight edge when facing them today. If he can get through five or six quality innings of work, San Diego can consider that a rousing success for their starter.
Batter up!
Despite some pop from France and Machado, the offense fell short against Atlanta starter Bryce Elder. The club went 0-for-3 with RISP, failing not only to create scoring opportunities but not capitalizing on the few they did have. With the Trade Deadline looming, every game is must-win for San Diego. They’ll need more from their offense to earn the win tonight.
- Fernando Tatis Jr., RF
- Jackson Merrill, CF
- Manny Machado, 3B
- Ty France, 1B
- Gavin Sheets, DH
- Xander Bogaerts, SS
- Jake Cronenworth, 2B
- Luis Campusano, C
- Luis Rengifo, LF
Rengifo came on as a pinch-hitter for Sheets in yesterday’s game. He went 2-for-2 and played left field quite competently. Since joining San Diego, the veteran has gone 5-for-9 across three games. If he can help spark this offense back to life, it would be a major turning point for the Friars.
Relief corps
Apart from Peralta’s lone mistake pitch, the bullpen locked it down. Bradgley Rodriguez and Kyle Hart pitched two scoreless innings to close it out, giving San Diego a chance to come back. Unfortunately, they never did.
But that usage will leave the Friars primed for a bullpen duel tonight. San Diego has Yuki Matsui, Mason Miller, Adrian Morejon, Randy Vásquez and Matt Waldron to turn to in Game 2. Vásquez and Waldron are starters who have been working out of the bullpen but should be making a start sooner rather than later.
