It was rough going for a moment there.<\/p>\n
The San Diego Padres bounced back late for a 10-8 win over the Colorado Rockies Thursday afternoon. In what felt like a gruelingly long game, the Friars continued to stay within striking distance but couldn\u2019t seem to get ahead of the Rox.<\/p>\n
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They finally did with three outs left. Rockies reliever Victor Vodnik<\/a> struggled to record an out, walking Jackson Merrill<\/a> to start the ninth before giving up three consecutive singles and a three-run blast from Gavin Sheets that just stayed fair.<\/p>\n It was a win the Friars needed. One that proved their bats are still alive after a week of them being peculiarly quiet. They\u2019ll need that slug this weekend as they face the Arizona Diamondbacks<\/a> in Mexico City tonight.<\/p>\n Taking the moundZac Gallen<\/a> (AZ) v. Germ\u00e1n M\u00e1rquez<\/a> (SD)<\/p>\n It was probably never that close, but it felt like Gallen was close to being a Padre this offseason.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n After being the subject of a prolonged free agency, he ended up re-signing with Arizona on a one-year deal. He\u2019s pitched serviceably to start the year but has struggled with command (3.51 ERA, 1.48 WHIP, 25.2 IP).<\/p>\n In the high-altitude, hitter-friendly environs of Mexico City \u2014 a stadium that last saw the Padres face the San Francisco Giants<\/a> in an 11-homer tirade \u2014 Gallen will need to have his command locked down. Otherwise, it\u2019ll quickly turn into a slugfest for San Diego<\/a>.<\/p>\n The same is true for M\u00e1rquez, though his statline suggests a worse pitcher than he has been. He\u2019s yet to record consecutive quality outings, going back-and-forth between giving up four runs and pitching a scoreless game.<\/p>\n That\u2019s been the problem for M\u00e1rquez so far this year: consistency. When he\u2019s on, he\u2019s on. But when he\u2019s not? He\u2019s really not.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n He pitched 5 2\/3 innings against the Los Angeles Angels<\/a> last week and only allowed two hits. The Friar Faithful hope that he can follow that performance tonight against the D-backs.<\/p>\n Batter up!<\/p>\n The starters will be out with the off day yesterday giving everyone a breather. That has the lineup looking like this:<\/p>\n Gallen is a tough starter to face, but the Padres have one thing over him: they\u2019ve faced him a lot.<\/p>\n That being said, certain players have had more success than others. Bogaerts, Cronenworth, France and Gavin Sheets all have a batting average over .300 against him. France, Sheets and Fernando Tatis Jr. have an OPS over 1.000 when facing the right-hander.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Those career numbers are why France might start at DH today, though Miguel Andujar<\/a> could as well after his bat heated up in Colorado<\/a>.<\/p>\n Those are names to watch for, with Cronenworth having an especially slow start to the year at the plate. He\u2019ll look to get things going today against Gallen.<\/p>\n Relief corps<\/p>\n Starter Matt Waldron<\/a> did not do much to help his case for a roster spot, giving up six runs in Thursday\u2019s series finale against Colorado. (The signing of free agent Lucas Giolito<\/a> could not have come soon enough.) But he did go five full innings, so the bullpen can at least be thankful for that.<\/p>\n The Padres used Adrian Morejon, Ron Marinaccio<\/a> and Mason Miller<\/a> to cover the final four frames. Miller extended his scoreless streak to tie the franchise record at 33 2\/3. He\u2019ll look to extend it against Arizona this weekend.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n But, with the off day yesterday, it\u2019ll likely be all-hands-on-deck for the Friars. That being said, the first out of the \u2018pen would be those who didn\u2019t pitch on Thursday. That leaves Jason Adam<\/a>, Kyle Hart<\/a>, David Morgan, Wandy Peralta<\/a> and Bradgley Rodriguez.<\/p>\n If M\u00e1rquez falters, then expect Hart or Peralta out first to cover multiple innings. But if San Diego has a lead and M\u00e1rquez makes it through five or six frames, the high-leverage guys will be out in full force.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was rough going for a moment there. The San Diego Padres bounced back late for a 10-8…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285908,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[9003,551,3673,118675,11544,3494,24418,77535,84742,51388,61012,47263,35175,2866,48888,77534,3493,7867,89235,47882,7868,47260,74,76,75,2611,4820,122489,26077,60758,47668],"class_list":{"0":"post-285907","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-arizona-diamondbacks","9":"tag-colorado","10":"tag-colorado-rockies","11":"tag-coors-field","12":"tag-denver","13":"tag-fernando-tatis-jr","14":"tag-france","15":"tag-gavin-sheets","16":"tag-german-marquez","17":"tag-jackson-merrill","18":"tag-jake-cronenworth","19":"tag-jason-adam","20":"tag-kyle-hart","21":"tag-los-angeles-angels","22":"tag-lucas-giolito","23":"tag-luis-campusano","24":"tag-manny-machado","25":"tag-mason-miller","26":"tag-matt-waldron","27":"tag-miguel-andujar","28":"tag-ramon-laureano","29":"tag-ron-marinaccio","30":"tag-san-diego","31":"tag-san-diego-headlines","32":"tag-san-diego-news","33":"tag-san-diego-padres","34":"tag-san-francisco-giants","35":"tag-victor-vodnik","36":"tag-wandy-peralta","37":"tag-xander-bogaerts","38":"tag-zac-gallen"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}