With momentum from Saturday’s win against the Detroit Tigers, the San Diego Padres felt poised to take the series opener against the division rival San Francisco Giants.
Sadly, it was not to be.
After getting shutout for eight full innings by a combination of starter Landen Roupp (6.0 IP), Matt Gage (1.0 IP) and Keaton Winn (1.0 IP), the Friars attempted a late rally off Ryan Walker.
Jake Cronenworth led off the inning with a walk and got to second on a Manny Machado groundout. With two outs, Jackson Merrill launched a payoff slider into left field for the Padres’ first runs of the game.
Now, with the tying run at the plate, Xander Bogaerts stepped into the box and promptly grounded out, ending what might have been.
Taking the mound
Logan Webb (SF) v. Germán Márquez (SD)
San Diego struggled to score in the few opportunities it had. The Padres will need to flip that script today against ace Logan Webb.
Webb looked mostly solid in his Opening Day start against the New York Yankees, but he was ambushed for five runs in the second inning. After that he mostly settled in.
If the Padres can hammer his mistakes like the Yanks did, they’ll be able to push him out of the game quickly. If not, they’ll have an even harder time than they did last night against Roupp.
For Márquez it marks a debut in the Brown and Gold. After Buehler had a solid (though uninspiring) debut (4.0 IP, 3 ER), the former Colorado Rockies ace will seek to top his back-end counterpart.
Batter up!
Jake Cronenworth looked mostly solid in his first time batting leadoff on Saturday. He did not look that way last night.
With that being said, it’s a small sample size of only two games. So he could still leadoff today. My guess, though, is that the lineup looks something more like this:
It’s still early, so manager Craig Stammen could experiment more than that, but it seems likely Merrill moves up to the third spot in the order.
Backup catcher Luis Campusano struggled at the plate, so Fermin will probably start.
It’s also probable that Andujar gets the DH start after Nick Castellanos failed to reach base last night. Andujar got a pinch-hit opportunity late in the game but grounded out.
Relief corps
Good news for San Diego: almost all of the high-leverage guys are available.
The only one of those to be used last night was righty David Morgan. Beyond him, Wandy Peralta (1.0 IP) and Ron Marinaccio (2.0 IP) were used. The three combined to put up five scoreless innings after Buehler exited the game.
So that leaves Jeremiah Estrada (seeking to rebound after his blow-up on Friday night), Kyle Hart, Bradgley Rodriguez, Adrian Morejon and closer Mason Miller.
Miller’s only been used to close games, and the Friars have only entered the ninth with the lead once (March 28). They’ll seek to give him a lead he can work with tomorrow night.
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