The San Diego Padres were red-hot in the middle of April but won just six of its last 11 games going into a three-game series against the Chicago White Sox.
The San Diego Padres enter play on Friday with a 19-11 record and trailing the Los Angeles Dodgers by a half-game in the National League West division.
The Padres had a red-hot April after a slow start to the season saw the team go 1-4 through its first five games. The thin starting rotation has been solid, the bullpen has been the best in baseball, thanks to closer Mason Miller, and the offense has gotten timely contributions from pretty much all the routine starters.
San Diego is coming off a series loss to the Chicago Cubs after stealing the series opener late, and the Padres are just 6-5 over its last 11 games. The team was getting perfect-gamed by right-hander Jameson Taillon into the fifth inning but were able to break it up with Miguel Andujar’s first home run and tied the game at 3 with Nick Castellanos’ first homer, a two-run shot, but faltered late to lose the finale.
The Padres are looking to begin May with a win against the pesky Chicago White Sox, which are just three games under .500 and have been swinging hot bats as of late. It will be rookie left-hander Noah Schultz for Chicago and veteran right-hander German Marquez for San Diego in the opener.
Schultz, 22, made his Major League debut April 14 and while it was a tough battle for the Randy Johnson-esque lefty, he showed flashes of why the White Sox are so high on him. His last two starts have been great: five innings, one hit and run (solo homer), one walk and six strikeouts against the Athletics for his first career win and six innings of two-run ball on four hits and four walks with eight punchouts against the Washington Nationals.
Marquez is 3-1 with a 4.38 ERA and 1.34 WHIP through five starts (24.2 innings) and has had an interesting season so far. Marquez has either given up four runs or no runs in all of his starts, with him surrendering four runs in his first, third and last starts and going scoreless in his second and fourth starts. If the trend continues, he should be in line for a scoreless performance this time around.
After a disastrous season with the Colorado Rockies last year, Marquez has stepped into the Padres rotation and pitched into the fifth inning four times and into the sixth inning in each of his last two starts. With how depleted the rotation is, Marquez needs to be up to the challenge.
First pitch is at 6:40 p.m. PDT on MLB.TV and regional sports networks.