Well, it\u2019s not quite over yet. Despite snapping their eight-game losing streak on Sunday afternoon, the San Diego Padres went back to their unfortunate losing ways with an 8-0 shutout against the Arizona Diamondbacks Monday night. The club couldn\u2019t manage a single run against Arizona starter Brandon Pfaadt and didn\u2019t reach second base until Jackson Merrill did so in the seventh inning.<\/p>\n
San Diego\u2019s Walker Buehler went five innings but surrendered seven runs to the Dbacks. It\u2019s a worrying trend as Buehler has now given up 16 runs between his last two outings. Prior to that, the righty hadn\u2019t given up more than a run in each of his June starts. Now Buehler is barely a serviceable back-end starter. The Friars were out of the game before they ever came to bat. They\u2019ll need to turn things around in Game 2 tonight against Arizona. If they can\u2019t, it will worsen the tough stretch the club has found themselves in.<\/p>\n
Zac Gallen (AZ) v. Germ\u00e1n M\u00e1rquez (SD)<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unfortunate, but Gallen has been one of the worst pitchers in the league. After re-signing with Arizona this offseason, he hasn\u2019t helped the club at all. The righty owns a 6.36 ERA through 92 innings and has just 56 strikeouts with an overblown 1.57 WHIP.<\/p>\n
Gallen has had the worst season of his career this year. The Dbacks\u2019 ace hasn\u2019t been able to put it together at any point this year. He\u2019s been even worse lately, with an 8.60 ERA in his last seven starts. The Friars should be able to tag Gallen for plenty of runs tonight.<\/p>\n
M\u00e1rquez is making his first start back after returning from the injured list earlier this week. The right-hander pitched three innings against Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday night. M\u00e1rquez pitched in bulk relief after Randy V\u00e1squez exited the game early. With V\u00e1squez now on the IL, M\u00e1rquez will be taking over for the righty.<\/p>\n
He pitched decent against L.A. in his first outing back, giving up two runs on two hits while walking three. He struggled with his command, but showed flashes of the ace-like stuff he once had. The hope for San Diego is that M\u00e1rquez can quiet Arizona\u2019s bats after a loud series opener (three home runs).<\/p>\n
Apart from last night\u2019s mishaps, the San Diego lineup has been effective as of late. The offense produced 15 runs against the Los Angeles Dodgers in their most recent series against the division rivals. More than that, Manny Machado has had a recent power surge. The third baseman has three home runs in his last seven games.<\/p>\n
Fernando Tatis Jr., RFJake Cronenworth, 2BManny Machado, 3BGavin Sheets, 1BTy France, DHJackson Merrill, CFXander Bogaerts, SSSamad Taylor, LFLuis Campusano, C<\/p>\n
Cronenworth went 2-for-4 last night against Pfaadt. The second baseman has a fantastic career when facing the Arizona righty. He\u2019s also hit well against Gallen, batting .300 with a .917 OPS against the Dbacks\u2019 ace (30 at-bats). Hopefully, Cronenworth will be able to continue that successful streak.<\/p>\n
Thankfully, Alek Jacob was able to cover three innings for the Friars. With Arizona\u2019s lead ballooned to seven runs by the time Jacob came in, the reliever was left on the mound for as long as possible. He threw 42 pitches, giving up just one run on a solo shot by Nolan Arenado. After him, Ron Marinaccio pitched the ninth inning. That outing from Jacob helped to salvage the bullpen for the remainder of the series.<\/p>\n
That will allow San Diego to have plenty of options for Game 2. Kyle Hart, Yuki Matsui, Mason Miller, Adrian Morejon, Wandy Peralta and Bradgley Rodriguez will be available if M\u00e1rquez struggles in his first start back. With no off day before the All-Star break, the club will be forced to rely on quality outings from their starters to save the \u2018pen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Well, it\u2019s not quite over yet. Despite snapping their eight-game losing streak on Sunday afternoon, the San Diego…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[74,76,75,95057,108390,10793],"class_list":["post-389751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-san-diego-padres-analysis","tag-san-diego-padres-game-information","tag-san-diego-padres-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389751","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=389751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}