Padres Series Preview: Friars Face the Reds at Great American Ballpark
The San Diego Padres have just played a series against one of the better teams in baseball, the Baltimore Orioles. They did fairly decent in that series as they drew the two game set. The Padres now start a series against one of the worst teams in baseball, the Cincinnati Reds. The series will be a four game set at Great American Ballpark. The Reds are currently sitting on a 28-44 record and are one of the worst teams in baseball. Sadly enough, the Padres are not far away with a 30-43 record. This will be a battle with two last place teams.
Even though both teams are basically doing as bad as one another. The Padres still feel like favorites to me, in this series. If the Padres can tie four-game series against the Nationals and Mets, there is absolutely no reason why they can’t win a four-game series against the Reds. The Friars have been really inconsistent when it comes to four-game series this season. As mentioned before, they split fou- game series against the Mets and Nationals. That’s good. But the thing is they have also tied a four game series against the Brewers. They have also lost three out of four games against the Phillies earlier this year.
As you can see the Padres have performed against the best teams in baseball, but have also failed against some of the worst teams in baseball. With all this said, it really is hard to say how the Pads will perform in this series. However, I do feel like the Padres can take this series. I feel like the Padres will be able to pull off three out of the four games. We should definitely see some good games in this series. The team will be at Great American Ballpark so we will definitely see the ball fly in this series.
Pitching Match Ups
Christian Friedrich vs John Lamb 4:10 p.m.
Colin Rea vs Cody Reed 4:10 p.m.
Drew Pomeranz vs Brandon Finnegan 1:10 p.m.
Luis Perdomo vs Anthony DeSclafani 10:10 p.m.
You may be looking at the Reds pitchers saying “who are these guys?”. Well if you don’t know who they are, you are really not missing much. The Reds have one of the worst pitching staffs in all of Major League Baseball. Reds’ Pitchers have the worst combined ERA in baseball at 5.32. To add to it, they also have the most earned runs and walks in the whole MLB as well. It’s safe to say the Padres definitely have the edge in terms of pitching in this series. The first game of the series definitely brings a match up which favors the Padres. The Reds will have John Lamb on the mound. Interesting looking fellow with a lot of tattoos, but not the best pitcher. In nine starts, lamb has only won one game and has an ERA of 4.75. In 10 starts last season, Lamb also only won one game and had an ERA of 5.80. This guy should really not be hard on the Padres lineup by any means. Christian Friedrich should have himself a win in his back pocket in game one. Friedrich is coming off a bad start, but to be fair it was against the Nationals. Friedrich threw six and allowed six runs on nine hits in his last start. Friedrich has done pretty well this season despite that start. Friedrich threw six innings and only give up a run against a comparable team to the Reds, the Brewers, earlier this season. Friedrich is definitely capable of getting the win to kick off this series.
The second game of the series brings a matchup that can really go either way. This could turn out to be the game the Padres drop in the series. The Padres will have Mr. Hot and Cold, Colin Rea. Sometimes this guy pitches like a staff ace, then other times he throws over 100 pitches in three innings. There’s no denying that Colin Rea has been very inconsistent this year, but he did have himself a very nice start in his last game. Rea only gave up one earned run in six and a third innings of work against the Nationals. Hopefully Rea can stay consistent and do even better versus the Reds. The Reds will have Cody Reed going for them. Now this name might not sound familiar at all. Well there is a reason for it. He just made his MLB debut in his last start. Reed actually looked pretty sharp in his debut against the Houston Astros. Reed threw seven innings, gave up four runs and struck out nine in his MLB debut. Despite their struggles, the Astros still possess some very good hitters. So this was a very impressive start from Reed. This will be a tough game and perhaps too close to call. It can really go either way.
Game three of the series will bring a matchup that should favor the Padres. Our ace, Drew Pomeranz, will get the nod on Saturday. Pomeranz is coming off a very nice start against the Nats as well. Drew threw six strong innings in which he only gave up three runs. That is very impressive considering his opponent. Drew is definitely capable of doing better than that against the Reds. The Reds will have a guy you might recognize on the mound, Brandon Finnegan. Finnegan earned his claim to fame by pitching in the College and MLB World Series in the same year back in 2014. Finnegan has been one of the better pitchers for the Reds this season. Even so he really hasn’t been fantastic. Finnegan currently sits on a 3-5 record with a 3.81 ERA. So yeah he’s not breaking any records anytime soon. Drew Pomeranz and the Padres will definitely have the edge going into this game.
Game four of the series will be another candidate for the game the Padres drop in this series. Luis Perdomo will be on the mound. That is always a factor that can lead to a loss. Especially when pitching at Great American Ballpark. To Perdomo’s credit the Padres have managed to win the games in his last three outings. Perdomo did play a factor in two of those wins. He would only allow three runs in two of those outings. But Perdomo did not help at all in his last start. The offense was to credit for that victory. Perdomo would give up six runs in his last start which came on Tuesday against the Orioles. The Padres will have a tough task in Anthony DeSclafani. Desclafani has only started in three games this season. But he has looked sharp so far. In those three starts DeSclafani is 1-0 with a 2.30 ERA. Anthony would look especially sharp in his last start. DeSclafani would pitch seven innings and only allow two runs against the Texas Rangers. The Padres will not have it easy in the last game of this series. I really believe the Padres will be able to take this series. I feel that if the Padres do drop a game it will be either the second or fourth game of the series. The pitching will most likely not be the highlight of this series. At the end of the day it might just come down to who can score the most runs. Either way we will probably see some decent games this weekend.
Players to Watch
You may not even know who this guy is. Don’t feel bad, despite his success many people still don’t. Adam Duvall is currently one of the best home run hitters in baseball. Duvall currently has 20 homers at this point of the season. It’s crazy to think that he has more than guys like Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, Albert Pujols, Giancarlo Stanton and Miguel Cabrera. To be fair to him his batting average isn’t horrible either at .258. He has also been a run producer with 49 RBI to this point. Despite all of this, Duvall currently isn’t even in the top 15 for the All Star Game voting for outfielders. That is not mind-blowing considering how ASG voting is nowadays, but it’s still quite sad to see. Well if we don’t see this guy next month at Petco Park for the ASG look for him in this series.
Who remembers the pillars of the recent Reds Franchise? Those players were of course Brandon Phillips, Joey Votto and Jay Bruce. The main players of the Dusty Baker era in Cincinnati. Well Phillips and Votto are having absolutely horrendous seasons so far. The only one who is performing this year of those three is Bruce. The Texan currently has a BA of .285 with 16 dingers and 55 RBI. Bruce is having an all-star type of year. Just like Duvall, Bruce is nowhere to be found in the top ASG voting leaders. Bruce has always been below that superstar level while being underrated at the same time. Well he finds himself on the same boat in this 2016 campaign. Bruce should definitely be a player more people mention. I’m sure that if he was a Cub or Giant that he would get a lot more recognition. He will definitely be a player to look out for in this series.
Kemp is coming off an absolutely killer series. Kemp performed amazing in this last series against the Orioles. Matt would go 6-10 with four RBI in two games. Those are outstanding numbers. Kemp really has picked it up in this month of June compared to his abysmal month of May. In his last five games, Kemp is batting an astronomical .421 with an OBP of .500. Kemp really has been on fire as of late. One thing he has been lacking as of late is home runs. I’m sure that Kemp will at least mange to get one at Great American Ballpark.
Match Ups
Jon Jay vs The Reds
Jay spent his whole career before joining the Pads with the St.Louis Cardinals. That means that he obviously saw a lot of the Cincinnati Reds. Jay saw the Reds in 88 games to be exact. Jay has had a pretty successful career against the Reds. In 276 at bats Jay has a BA of .301 against the Cardinals. He also has six home runs in the mix with 30 RBI and a very nice OBP of .379 as well. As far as his numbers at Great American go. He has also been pretty successful there. In 45 games Jay has a BA of .299 and an OBP of .380 in Cincinnati. I’m sure Jay will increase his Career BA at Great American to over .300 in this series.
Joey Votto vs Christian Friedrich
Not many players have faced each other in this series. This was the most relevant matchup I could find for this series. These two have only faced each other on five occasions and Votto is the clear winner. The Canadian has dominated the lefty. In five at bats Votto has managed to get four hits off of Friedrich. That includes a double in the mix as well. Joey Votto is always an interesting player to see at the plate. This should be an interesting matchup to see.
Storyline
Will The Bats Stay Hot?
The Padres bats really have been hot as of late. The offense has managed to get at least five runs in six of their last seven games. That is pretty impressive for any MLB team, but especially for the Padres. Everything is aligned for the Padres to keep on performing. The Reds have horrendous pitching and the games will be played at Great American Ballpark, two big factors for plenty of runs in this series. As mentioned before, Matt Kemp has done amazing in his last few games. Another player who has really been hot is Wil Myers. In his last seven games Myers has hit .310 with two home runs, seven RBI and even two stolen bases in the mix as well. I believe that the bats will continue to perform in this series. All we have to hope for is for the pitching not to let us down. Also for the plague of inconsistency not to strike. Go Padres!
Francisco, 26, Chula Vista/Tijuana. I have been a Padres fan all my life, did most of the series previews and recaps in the Padres’ 2016 season for EVT. Now I focus more on the local soccer scene. Tijuana Xolos, San Diego Loyal, San Diego Wave.