Padres Series Preview: Giants In Town for Weekend Series
The All Star festivities are over. Now it’s time to start worrying about the Padres again. Well they started it off right with trading Drew Pomeranz for a really promising pitcher in Anderson Espinoza. Now it’s time to keep on performing to trade more Friars away.
Although that might be hard to do against the San Francisco Giants. The Padres will start a three-game series against the Giants at Petco Park. The Giants have shown complete dominance over the Padres this season. The Padres have lost all nine games against the Gigantes and it hasn’t been pretty. There have been some really humiliating games in the mix.
In five out of the nine games the Padres have only managed to score a run or less. There was also a game in there that was ultimately decided by a defensive indifference. The Padres have looked their worst, when facing the Giants this season. I would definitely advise everyone to expect the worse this weekend. That way if we at least win a game, it’ll really be something great. All I really hope for is for some clean losses. I don’t want to see shutouts or game ending errors in this series. Please, that is all I ask for.
Pitching Matchups
Madison Bumgarner vs Andrew Cashner 7:40 p.m.
Jeff Samardzija vs Luis Perdomo 5:40 p.m.
Johnny Cueto vs Edwin Jackson 1:40 P.M.
Well we don’t quite know yet who will be starting for the Padres on Sunday afternoon. Even so you can clearly see that the Giants have an edge in this series. Madison Bumgarner will be on the hill for the Giants in the opener of this series. Mad Bum has been incredible this season for the Giants. He currently has the second lowest ERA in all of MLB at 1.94. He also is third in most strikeouts with 146. To add to all of this Bumgarner has been a real menace to the Padres this season. In two games the lefty has only allowed three runs and has struck out 20 Friars. I mean do I even have to talk about Cashner? I’ll do so just a little. Andrew Cashner has basically been the poster boy for inconsistency this season. Cashner is coming off one of his worst starts of the season. He would only go two and two-thirds and allow eight runs against the Dodgers. Those numbers may sound familiar. That is because earlier in the year Cashner would almost do the same against the Giants. Back in April, Cashner would only go two and two-thirds and allow six runs against the Giants. Very safe to say that the Giants will be taking the first game of this series.
The second game of this series is also a bit of a mismatch. However if the Padres do play their cards right, they could be seeing a W in this game. The Giants will have “The Shark”, Jeff Samardzija on the mound. “The Shark” hasn’t been amazing for the Giants with a 3.91 ERA on the season. But he has found ways to win with nine on the season. Samardzija has also not completely dominated the Padres but he has beat them in all three games. In the three games Samardzija has allowed seven runs to score. So he hasn’t been on Bumgarner or Cueto level. Nonetheless he is still a major threat to this Padres offense. Another dangerous factor are his career numbers at Petco Park. That is something Samardzija has been dominant in. In three career starts the lengthy pitcher has manged to hold an ERA of 1.54. So as you can see the Giants definitely have an edge going into this game. Next we’ll talk a little about Luis Perdomo. Perdomo deserves to be talked about. He has been great since becoming a starter. He has really shown his worth to this team. Four out of his last five starts have been quality starts. Perdomo has really picked it up since his early bullpen struggles. Perdomo and the Padres definitely have a chance in Saturday’s game. They just have to make sure all components of the team are in place and ready to go. As mentioned before, it is still unclear as to who is starting on Sunday afternoon for the Padres. Although it doesn’t really make a difference. The Giants practically already have game three of this series in the bag. The third game of this series is almost already guaranteed to go to the Giants. The Gigantes will have Johnny “Friar Killer” Cueto on the mound. Now Cueto more than deserves that nickname for his performances this season. Let’s just start with his overall performance. Cueto has been stunning this season for the Giants. Cueto has an insane win loss record at 13-1. He also has the third lowest ERA in the majors at 2.47. Now those numbers are going to sound “cute” compared to his numbers against the Padres this season. In three games against the Padres he has only allowed a run in 27 innings of work. Yes Cueto has pitched three complete games against the Padres this season. He has only allowed a single run and has only allowed three walks as well. Cueto has earned the nickname “Friar Killer”. The Padres could have Christian Bethancourt on the mound on Sunday and it still wouldn’t make a difference. So to me the Giants will definitely take this series. The best case scenario I see is the Padres taking one game from this series.
Player To Watch
People are always saying that the Home Run Derby can really take a toll on a player. Well Myers only lasted one round so I really can’t see the derby affecting him at all. Nevertheless, it’ll still be interesting to see how Myers performs in the first series after the All Star break. Myers had an amazing first half of the season. Before the All Star break Myers batted .286 with 19 homers and 60 RBI. He really has been the Padres best player. As mentioned before though, Giants pitchers have dominated the Padres. Myers has been no exception. In 27 at bats this season Myers has only had four hits off of Giants pitchers. He has had an abysmal OBP of .207 as well. There are several factors that may affect Myers performance in this series. His struggles against the Giants, the “all-star hangover”. So it’ll be interesting to see how he can do in this series. Let’s also not forget that this series is at Petco Park. Myers has dominated Petco Park this season with a .339 Ba, .392 OBP, an OPS over 1.000 and 13 home runs. So at the end of the day, who knows how Myers will ultimately perform in this series. Definitely an interesting player to keep an eye on though.
Matchups
Madison Bumgarner vs Andrew Cashner
No I’m not going to go over this mismatch of a pitching matchup again. I actually mean this in terms of Mad Bum batting against Cashner. As surprising as it may sound, Bumgarner has actually never had an at bat against Cashner. As we all know Mad Bum really possesses some power at the plate and can really be a hazard to any opposing pitcher. He is still batting under the Mendoza line. But he has manged to hit two home runs and has drawn six walks this season. I expect Madison to really put on a show in Friday night’s game. I predict that he will at least manage to get an RBI in the game.
Alexei Ramirez vs Johnny Cueto
Almost no Friar has had success with Bumgarner or Cueto. Alexei Ramirez seems to be the only one who has done well against Cueto. This season he has actually gone 3-8 against Cueto. He has also managed to produce the only run the Padres have had against Cueto in this season. Overall in his career Ramirez had done very well against Cueto. In 19 at bats the ” Cuban Missile” has had 10 hits with a home run. Ramirez has an outstanding OPS of 1.339 against Cueto along with a very healthy .526 BA. Alexei represents the only glimmer of hope the Padres truly have against Cueto. Bat him higher in the lineup vs Cueto, Andy Green. He could make the difference.
Storylines
Goodbye Drew
Well the Padres made another trade recently as they dealt their best arm, Drew Pomeranz. The lefty was traded to the Red Sox for a very talented young arm in Anderson Espinoza. The Padres really managed to get a great return for their all-star pitcher. Pomeranz really was great this season. He truly was amazing. No one saw it coming at all either. Before the season started Pomeranz was even discussed to go to the bullpen. Well now he was traded away for one of the better young arms in the minor leagues. How about that for value?
This had to be one of A.J Preller’s smartest moves he has done yet. I would like to thank Pomeranz for all of his contributions to the team. When he was out on the mound he really made every Padre fan feel secure. He made me feel like we had a chance of winning. He definitely brought a lot to the ball club. He quickly became one of the best pitchers in MLB. I say that with no exaggeration as well. In fact Pomeranz now technically possesses the lowest ERA in the American League at 2.47. That is just incredible, when you think about it. I wish the best to Drew, he certainly seemed exited with his tweet earlier about joining the Sox. Big thanks to him. He will always be a part of Padres history.
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.