As first impressions go, newbies Casey Mize and Robbie Ray left a lot to be desired in their Padres debuts. The former turned in the worst start of his career. The latter wasn’t nearly as good (5 IP, 4 ER) as he was in beating the Padres the previous week (6 IP, 1 ER).
The Padres are hardly panicking about their deadline moves.
“You’re looking at, ‘Will we be better with those guys over a period of time?,’ not just in one single first start,” Padres manager Craig Stammen said. “ … It’s kind of the ebbs and flows of the season, and we’re thankful that they’re on our team and looking forward to the next eight, nine, 10 starts, playoff starts that they get.”
Their next starts will come against baseball’s best team, the Milwaukee Brewers.
Mize will start Monday, Ray will go Wednesday and the Padres begin the week a game behind the Phillies and Diamondbacks in the race for the NL’s second and third wild-card spots.
The top-10 …
1 | Milwaukee Brewers (74-44; Last week: 1)
2 | Atlanta Braves (71-47; LW: 3)
3 | Los Angeles Dodgers (70-48; LW: 2)
4 | Tampa Bay Rays (71-46; LW: 4)
5 | Chicago Cubs (69-50; LW: 6)
6 | New York Yankees (66-52; LW: 5)
7 | Boston Red Sox (64-53; LW: 8)
8 | Chicago White Sox (61-56; LW: 7)
9 | Arizona Diamondbacks (63-56; LW: 12)
10 | Philadelphia Phillies (63-56; LW: 10)
… and the rest
11 | SAN DIEGO PADRES (62-57; LW: 15)
12 | Miami Marlins (60-58=9; LW: 16)
13 | St. Louis Cardinals (59-59; LW: 13)
14 | Houston Astros (60-59; LW: 22)
15 | Texas Rangers (59-59; LW: 17)
16 | Detroit Tigers (58-60; LW: 20)
17 | Washington Nationals (59-61; LW: 11)
18 | Pittsburgh Pirates (58-62; LW: 9)
19 | Cleveland Guardians (58-61; LW: 14)
20 | Minnesota Twins (58-61; LW: 19)
21 | Baltimore Orioles (57-61; LW: 21)
22| Seattle Mariners (56-63; LW: 18)
23 | Toronto Blue Jays (56-63; LW: 24)
24 | Cincinnati Reds (56-61; LW: 23)
25 | New York Mets (52-67; LW: 26)
26 | San Francisco Giants (49-69; LW: 25)
27 | Kansas City Royals (49-70; LW: 27)
28 | Colorado Rockies (46-72; LW: 30)
29 | Los Angeles Angels (45-73; LW: 28)
30 | Sacramento Athletics (47-71; LW: 29)