The San Diego Padres got pitching reinforcements at the trade dealine on Monday, and they’re arriving just in time. The Padres will get their first look at one of the big ones, as Casey Mize will make his first start in a Padres uniform against the Arizona Diamondbacks tonight.
Mize arrives with the series tied at 1-1 and the Padres “rotation,” such as it is, running on fumes. The Padres have been using something they’ve been calling “pitching chaos,” which basically amounts to starters Michael King and Walker Buehler plus an nine-man bullpen.
He’ll be making his debut start for San Diego with the two teams separated by just a game in the wild-card race and the NL West standings, with the former being far more important.
Mize has given up three earned runs or less in each of his last five starts, and he’s also gone at least six innings in three of them. That latter number is just as important as the first one given the state of the Padres bullpen, which has also been running on fumes with the starters coming up short of five innings on a regular basis for weeks now.
The right-hander is also pitching to an ERA of 2.70, which is the best among Padres satrters by a good margin. The Padres will be trying to convince Mize to stay in San Diego, as GM A.J. Preller finally got ownership to loosen the purse strings and trade for Mize and San Francisco Giants starter Robbie Ray.
Mize’s mound opponent in this one will be Mitch Bratt, who’s being used as an occasional starter in his rookie year. His ERA currently sits at 5.23, but Mize has been reasonably strong of late, and he gave up just a run in five innings in five innings in his last outing against the Cleveland Guardians.
The Padres offense has been perking up lately, so this should be a good opportunity to take a lead in the crucial series given the matchup. Jackson Merrill has been hot lately, and so has Manny Machado, with both having big nights against Arizona last night to knot up the series.
Having Mize on the mound should also help the Padres bullpen. The relievers have been doing yeoman duty lately, going multiple innings whenever necessary. The Padres could have a real rotation as soon as this weekend, when Ray is scheduled to make his first start as a Padre against the Houston Astros.
