The San Diego Padres recently lost All-Star reliever Jason Adam for the rest of the season, but they still have plenty of quality arms for the stretch run, which continues Friday night in the opener of a three-game series in Denver against the Colorado Rockies.
San Diego right-hander Nick Pivetta (13-4, 2.84 ERA) is the probable starter for the opener of the three-game series while left-hander Kyle Freeland (3-14, 5.41) will take the mound for Colorado (39-101) three days after he was ejected eight pitches into his outing.
Pivetta is 1-6 with an 11.14 ERA in seven games (six starts) against the Rockies.
San Diego (76-64) has dropped four in a row but remains in strong position to capture one of the three National League wild-card berths. The Padres have been hit hard by injuries beyond Adam; shortstop Xander Bogaerts (fractured foot) is on the IL and will likely be out until the playoffs.
“It hurts,” said center fielder Jackson Merrill, who returned from an ankle injury Monday. “But every team has injured players. Every team. There’s not a single team that’s fully healthy. We’ve just got to keep grinding.”
The loss of Adam is offset by the trade-deadline acquisition of All-Star reliever Mason Miller, who threw an immaculate inning — three strikeouts on nine pitches — in a loss to Baltimore on Wednesday. According to MLB.com, he joined Brian Lawrence (June 12, 2002) as the only Padres to achieve the feat.
The last time the Padres were in Denver they scored 37 runs in three games, which included a 21-0 win on May 10. Colorado won the next day but fired manager Bud Black following the game and replaced him with Warren Schaeffer on an interim basis.
The Rockies are 32-67 since the change and need just three wins in their final 22 games to avoid matching the 2024 Chicago White Sox for the most losses in the modern era. It seemed as if they would reach that by the end of August following a 7-2 stretch but they have dropped 11 of 13 heading into Friday.
Colorado has found some positives, especially catcher Hunter Goodman, who leads the team in home runs (27) and RBIs (83).
“Nobody wants to lose as much as we’ve lost — nobody wants to be in that situation,” Goodman said. “But I think we’ve done a good job of pushing forward and trying to get better every day. I know the last two weeks haven’t been great, but we’re in pretty good games.”
The Rockies are 1-5 on their homestand and are coming off a sweep by the Giants. In Tuesday’s game, Freeland was on the mound for two batters before an altercation with Rafael Devers led to both teams running onto the infield and ended with Devers’ ejection.
Freeland is expected to make his 24th start and 26th appearance against San Diego. He is 7-9 with a 4.74 ERA in the previous matchups.
–Field Level Media
