Padres Series Preview: Snakes Come to Town For Last Time in 2016
The San Diego Padres are coming off a dreadful series against the Colorado Rockies. The Padres would lose all three games of the series as they would get outscored 22-10.
This would really turn out to be one of the poorest performances the team has had all year. Well now it’s time to move on from that series and start a new one. The Padres will take on the Arizona Diamondbacks at Petco Park for the last time in 2016. This will not be the last time the teams will face each other in the season but it will be their last encounter at Petco Park.
Overall both teams are not in an ideal situation. The Padres are dealing with internal problems and problems within the team’s performance as well. While the Diamondbacks have had a very disappointing season after making some huge signings and trades in the off-season.
Just a month ago these two teams would face each other in a four game series at Petco Park. The Padres would get the better of the Snakes as they would take three out of the four games. The offense would be great for the Friars in that series as they would score 26 runs throughout the series. Hopefully the Padres can repeat that performance and get the better of the Snakes once again. I can definitely see it happening especially when taking to account that the Diamondbacks have only been victorious in one out of their last four series. The Padres are definitely capable of not just taking this series but even perhaps getting a series sweep. This will surely be an action packed series with a lot of exciting baseball coming our way.
Pitching Matchups
Braden Shipley vs Clayton Richard 7:10 p.m.
Archie Bradley vs Paul Clemens 7:10 p.m.
Zack Greinke vs Luis Perdomo 6:10 p.m.
Matchups
Zack Greinke vs Luis Perdomo
To me this is definitely the most appealing matchup of the series. You can clearly see that Greinke is really no longer that imposing force that he was with the Dodgers. In his last three starts Greinke is 0-3 with a 6.48 ERA. There is clearly something wrong with this former Cy Young Award winner. Whatever it is that all seems to vanish when he faces the San Diego Padres. Greinke has historically had great success against the Friars and that hasn’t changed in this 2016 campaign. Greinke is 1-0 with a 3.54 ERA against the Pads this season. Overall in his career he has maintained a very low 1.96 ERA against the Padres.
Luis Perdomo and the Padres will certainly have a tough task in hand here. Perdomo has probably been one of the better rule-5 draft picks of the season for any team. He really has been an important piece to this 2016 Padres team. Perdomo is a very hard worker who seems to be progressing gradually throughout the season. Luis has been decent in his last three starts posting a 4.74 ERA with 14 strikeouts. The sinker baller would of course get a win against Madison Bumgarner in his latest outing. It would be nice to see him get back to back wins against elite MLB pitchers. It really is hard to say who will get the edge in this game. But if Greinke stays consistent with his recent performances the Padres should have a chance.
Zack Greinke vs Ryan Schimpf
Zack Greinke has been a very tough opponent for Padres batters this season. Only One Friar(Matt Kemp) has managed to homer off him this season. There is also only one Friar who has gotten more than one extra base hit off of Greinke and that would be, Ryan Schimpf. Schimpf has gone 2-3 against Greinke this season with the two hits both being doubles. I really believe that Schimpf just may become the first current Friar to go yard against Greinke this season. We all know that he does posses enough power to do it. We’ll have to see if Greinke will end up getting served some Schimpf cocktail.
Players To Watch
Lamb has been a very underrated player for the Diamondbacks this season. Lamb is currently batting .253 with 28 dingers and 88 RBI. He has also been deadly against the Padres throughout this 2016 campaign. Lamb has gone 9-37 against the Padres with two triples, two home runs and six walks. The main reason why Lamb is a player to watch in this series is because he has done well against the pitchers going in this series. Lamb is yet to face Clayton Richard but he knows Paul Clemens and Luis Perdomo quite well. Lamb has gone 1-2 against Clemens with a walk. Even more impressive are Lamb’s stats against Luis Perdomo. Jake has gone 2-7 against Luis with a triple, a home run and a walk. Lamb has also gotten to our bullpen going yard against Matt Thornton and getting a triple against Carlos Villanueva. Don’t count sheep and focus on Jake Lamb during this series.
Clayton Richard
Clayton Richard is phenomenal. Who would have ever thought I’d be saying that at this point of the season. Well I am… and he truly is out of this world. Clayton has held a terrific ERA of 1.70 in eight games as a Padre. He will also not be facing a great opponent in Braden Shipley. The rookie has not lost in his last three starts but has held an ERA of over eight in those starts. Clayton will most certainly be able to handle the rookie and the Snakes in the series opener. Richard has of course handled the Dbacks in the past. In his lone start against them this season he would throw six scoreless innings against them. But a lack of run support would hand him the undeserved loss. I expect Richard to start us off with a nice W to open up this series and perhaps even do a lot more than that. You just never know.
“Fast Freddy” has been great this season being one of the prolific base stealers in MLB. Jankowski has also done great against the Diamondbacks this season. “Freddy The Flash” has gone 10-30 against the Dbacks this season with a double, a home run, four walks and four stolen bases. He specifically has done quite well against the pitchers going in this series. Jankowski is only 1-4 against Greinke but he has done very well against Bradley and Shipley. Freddy is 2-3 against Archie Bradley with a stolen base. Jankowski has only had one hit against Shipley, but it would be a two-run home run. So overall “Freddy The Flash” has been outstanding against these Diamondbacks pitchers. At the very least I expect to see some action on the base paths in this series from Jankowski. Hopefully Freddy and the Friars can have a nice series and beat the Snakes for the last time at Petco Park this season. Well until the recap Friar Faithful, enjoy this series. 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.