The San Diego Padres have mostly fixed their recent downward spiral, but they still have some work to do when it comes to reworking their starting rotation. The Pads have pitched well in their last four games, and now they’re making a significant move to reset the rotation.
Specifically, lefty JP Sears will step into the breach against the Colorado Rockies tonight to follow up on San Diego’s 2-0 victory in the series opener, according to Kevin Acee. That will push back starter Dylan Cease to Saturday, with right-hander Yu Darvish set to finish the Colorado series on Sunday.
When the Padres travel cross country to meet the New York Mets at Citi Field, Michael King will toe the rubber in that series opener on Tuesday.
The deck shuffling represents an obvious attempt to capitalize on Colorado’s position as the ultimate basement bottom-dweller. Getting the Rockies at home is a de facto break for the pitching staff, and it gives Cease, Darvish and King extra rest heading down the stretch.
It’s also an attempt to take advantage of San Diego’s position in the standings. The Padres enter the weekend with a four-game cushion in the wild card race, and the Los Angeles Dodgers are still well within sight given the 2-1/2 games that currently separates the two teams.
JP Sears is one of several pitching wild cards in this series of maneuvers. Sears was acquired at the trade deadline in the same deal that brought over star reliever Mason Miller from the Athletics, but he had a rough go initially when he was optioned back to Triple-A following a bad Padres debut against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The bet here is that Sears can hold down the fort against Colorado and follow in the footsteps of right-hander Randy Vasquez, who shut out the Rockies over six innings before three receivers came on to preserved the shutout.
Sears enters this start with an ERA of 5.52 during his San Diego stint, but he did pitch effectively against the San Francisco Giants back on August 20th, and the Padres will be more than happy if he can come close to duplicating his pitching line of one run in six innings against the Giants.
Meanwhile, San Diego will do some scoreboard watching. The Dodgers travel to San Francisco for a three-game set against their arch-rivals, and this series will be a battle with the Giants also in contention for a wild-card berth. The back-and-forth will likely continue unabated in SoCal, and no one would be surprised to see this race go down to the final weekend.