LOS ANGELES \u2014 The Padres have looked high and low and everywhere in between to squeeze more out of the rotation.<\/p>\n
Now the strength of the team is taking a hit.<\/p>\n
For the second time this season, reliever Jason Adam has landed on the 15-day injured list, this time with a shoulder strain that surfaced while throwing before Wednesday\u2019s game in Chicago. The Padres activated right-hander Germ\u00e1n M\u00e1rquez (forearm nerve) from the injured list to take Adam\u2019s place on the active roster, but a relief corps assembled to shorten games is short on late-and-close arms.<\/p>\n
Right-hander Jeremiah Estrada is already on the injured list for the second time this season with right knee inflammation and has yet to begin a rehab assignment. Right-hander David Morgan \u2014 who was expected to take a step forward this year \u2014 landed on the injured list earlier this week with knee inflammation. Adam began the year on the injured list as he built up following last year\u2019s season-ending quad injury and will now have an MRI on an achy right shoulder.<\/p>\n
That figures to put even more pressure on left-hander Adrian Morej\u00f3n (3.32 ERA) to get a lead to closer Mason Miller (0.78 ERA). It\u2019s also an opportunity for rookie right-hander Bradgley Rodriguez (2.06 ERA) and left-handers Wandy Peralta (1.62 ERA) and Yuki Matsui (1.53 ERA) to show that their success this year can translate to higher-leverage spots in a bullpen that has the fifth-best ERA (3.56) in the majors.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s part of the game,\u201d Morej\u00f3n said. \u201cOne of the best relievers on the team is on the injured list right now. We need all the guys in the bullpen right now to stay focused and go compete every inning. Obviously me and Mason will try to help the team every time, especially most of the time I come in in the seventh or eighth inning. Mason is always the closer, but I\u2019m trying to do my best to help the team win.\u201d<\/p>\n
A first-time All-Star last year, Adam is again leading the team in holds (17), although his performance deteriorated in June. He had a 2.25 ERA in eight innings after activation in April, did not allow a run in 12 innings in May and then saw his ERA balloon to 5.11 while allowing four homers in 12\u2153 innings last month.<\/p>\n
Adam last appeared in a game on Monday when he allowed a run in the eighth inning of a 3-2 loss at Wrigley Field. He was expected to undergo imaging on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t something that was super bothering him,\u201d Padres manager Craig Stammen said of Adam\u2019s shoulder strain. \u201cReally had nothing going on shoulder wise until just (Wednesday).\u201d<\/p>\n
Added Stammen: \u201cThrowing program didn\u2019t go so well. Right shoulder strain \u2014 just felt like he couldn\u2019t get it going. Felt like the safest thing was to put him on the IL, call German up. So hopefully Jason\u2019s injury isn\u2019t too long, and that we just give him a little breather, and then he can be back helping our bullpen again.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Ready to do anything\u2019<\/p>\n
M\u00e1rquez had a 5.76 ERA in 29\u2154 innings to begin the year in the Padres\u2019 rotation. He landed on the injured list on May 3 with inflammation in his forearm nerve, began a rehab assignment with Triple-A El Paso on June 2 and had allowed three earned runs in 15\u2153 innings when the Padres asked him to work out of the bullpen with El Paso.<\/p>\n
M\u00e1rquez made his MLB debut in September 2016 as a reliever, making three appearances before closing that year with three starts. He\u2019d essentially be a starter ever since.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s still the same baseball,\u201d M\u00e1rquez said. \u201cI have to be ready for one inning or five innings. I\u2019ve been throwing a lot of games, but I\u2019ll be ready for one inning or five innings.\u201d<\/p>\n
M\u00e1rquez allowed two runs in 1\u2154 innings after entering a game in the middle of an inning on June 23. On Tuesday, he allowed three runs in two-thirds of an inning.<\/p>\n
M\u00e1rquez will initially work out of the bullpen. Depending on how things unfold as the Padres navigate the rest of these 17 straight games to close the first half, he could also grab a start at some point.<\/p>\n
The inflammation in his forearm is well behind him, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels good,\u201d M\u00e1rquez said. \u201cI was over there grinding and I feel good. Ready to do anything I can to help the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Notable<\/p>\n
C Luis Campusano (toe, oblique) homered in his first rehab game on Tuesday while playing catching six innings for Triple-A El Paso. He was off Wednesday and back in El Paso\u2019s lineup on Thursday. His return to the Padres will hinge on getting back to catching a full nine innings, playing back-to- back days and being able to handle catching four out of five games, Stammen said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2014 The Padres have looked high and low and everywhere in between to squeeze more out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[181,1334,74,76,75,2611,127],"class_list":["post-384510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-latest-headlines","tag-mlb","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-san-diego-padres","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384510","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=384510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}