The San Diego Padres need a win today to keep from being swept by the woeful Kansas City Royals.
The San Diego Padres have done the opposite of what they needed to do so far against the Kansas City Royals, but they’ll try and salvage the last game of their three-game road set as their season continues to teeter on the brink.
Unfortunately, they’ll send German Marquez to the mound, which usually isn’t a strong predictor for success. Marquez did have a good start before the break against the Arizona Diamondbacks as he gave up just one unearned run in five innigns, but he followed that with a shoddy four-inning effort against the Toronto Blue Jays in which he gave up three earned runs.
Such is the state of the Padres rotation these days. It’s Michael King and a bunch of question marks, and the bullpen has already been burnt to a crisp. The Padres have basically told the world that they’re going to be sellers at the deadline, and it’s starting to look like there will be wholesale changes in San Diego given the number of Padres players who will be heading into free agency.
Most of those players are marginal at best going forward, but the big fish will be closer Mason Miller if the Padres decide to do a complete rebuild. Moving Miller is unlikely given that the Padres have new owners who need to keep bodies in the seats at Petco Park for the rest of the summer.
Noah Cameron will be on the hill for the Royals, who have officially exceeded their expected status of “pesky” by winning the first two games of this series.
Cameron hasn’t been good this season, as he comes into this one with an ERA of 4.89, but that hasn’t seemed to matter much given the ills afflicting the Padres lineup, which has often gone cold in key games. The 27-year old lefty did hold the Phillies to one run in five innings two starts ago, so he is capable of pitching well on occasion.
The Padres do occasionally show signs of life, and yesterday’s came in the form of a rare homer from Fernando Tatis Jr. It was just his sixth of the season, but this would be a good time for Tatis to show that he’s more than just an overpaid leadoff hitter who sets the table for a lineup that can’t hit.
A series sweep by the Royals would send a strong signal that the Padres are waving the white flag for real, although they’re still just 3-1/2 games out in the wild card race.
