The San Diego Padres welcome the San Francisco Giants to Petco Park on the strength of a five-game win streak. The offense has shown it is capable of winning big and the pitching has shown it can hold the lead in close games. While not all the games have been clean, they had all resulted in a win for the Padres. San Diego will try to extend its winning streak to six games in front of a what is expected to be a large crowd on a giveaway night.
San Francisco is coming into the series after a blowout win over the NL Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers. The Giants have lost Casey Schmitt to the IL, but despite their record they have shown an ability to give teams problems. There is still star power on the team with Rafael Devers and Willy Adames so the Padres should not expect a potential sixth win in a row to come easy.
Taking the mound
JP Sears (SD) v. TBD (COL)
JP Sears will get the start for San Diego against San Francisco. He has been solid in his outings at the major league level this season with the exception of the game in Chicago at Wrigley Field. Sears has a 3-3 record and a 3.86 ERA in 28.0 innings. The expectation is the left-hander will work a handful of innings before the pitching chaos approach takes over for San Diego.
San Francisco had still not announced a starting pitcher at the time of this report.
Batter up!
The Padres just needed one three-run inning to beat the visiting Rockies, but they need to get back to scoring in multiple innings to give their relievers some room to work. The big inning, if you want to call three runs a big inning, was all the San Diego pitching staff needed to get the win.
It is hard to imagine Luis Rengifo coming out of the lineup, but he has cooled slightly at the plate. He has shown an ability to provide some power off the bench if needed and could be used in that role. It seems that every time the trio of Tatis, Machado and Merrill are productive the Padres win. San Diego will hope its stars shine tonight to open the series.
Relief corps
Adrian Morejon got the day off yesterday, but Mason Miller pitched in back-to-back days. Morejon may be used in the closer role if the situation calls for it. Randy Vasquez should be the first out of the ‘pen behind sears and the chaos will ensue after that. No matter how they get it done, if the Padres walk away with a win, the bullpen has delivered.
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