Series Preview: SF Giants at SD Padres

The Padres welcome back to San Diego the 1st place San Francisco Giants (yup, you read that right) for an important series.

The San Francisco Giants (16-9) come to San Diego for the second time this season for a matchup of teams that feels diametrically opposed to one another. One team has been lucky and healthy, while the other has fought through a barrage of injuries and poor luck on top of that.

The San Diego Padres (14-12) will look to get their season on track and make up for the earlier home series loss this weekend, but the Giants are not the easy opponent that many made them out to be before the season started. The Padres will need to play some of their best baseball if they want the series win.

What happened last time they played?

It all came crashing down to Earth for the Padres the last time they saw the Giants. After taking three of four games from the Arizona Diamondbacks, and with series coming up against the Rangers and Pirates, the Padres thought they would be rolling through the early part of April until their big series against the Dodgers.

Instead, before things could really get going, Fernando Tatis Jr. reinjured his shoulder on a strike three swing and left a dark cloud hanging over the team with his absence. Trent Grisham was still not healthy, and his absence lead to a home run bouncing off of the head of Jorge Mateo in CF and over the wall. It wasn’t fun.

While both teams scored 7 runs over three games, the Giants left as series winners by taking two of the three games at Petco Park.

What have they done recently?

The San Francisco Giants are in 1st place in the NL West. The same division as the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers. I don’t think anyone really expected this, but their veteran-heavy roster seems to be more productive than it was last season.

The Giants have lost just one series this year, to the Miami Marlins, and most of their games are not particularly close. The Giants are 13-6 since the last time they played the Padres. They score a lot of runs and pitch well. Sometimes, baseball is that simple.

The other side of that coin is that the Giants have played some really bad teams over the stretch. They’ve played the Marlins twice, the Rockies twice, and the Reds. They also took a series from the Phillies, though, who are sitting in 1st place in the NL East.

Despite taking three of four from the Dodgers in Los Angeles, the Padres recent track record is still pretty rough. They are 6-9 in their last 15 games. They have lost at least three starting pitchers to injury. They have won just 3 of their 8 series so far this season.

Key injuries

In addition to having a light early schedule, the Giants have also been pretty lucky when it comes to injuries. The only important players they’re missing heading into this series are Johnny Cueto and Mike Yastrzemski, both of whom are fighting through minor muscle injuries and will be back soon.

The Padres got back Austin Nola, somewhat surprisingly, while in Arizona. That means that, weird as it sounds, all of the Padres injured players right now are pitchers.

Pitching matchups

Our ace.

Yu Darvish vs. Logan Webb

Blake Snell vs. Anthony DeSclafani

Joe Musgrove vs. Kevin Guasman

Gausman has been great early on in this season and, somehow, DeSclafani has been even better. Johnny Cueto, who the Padres won’t see this time, has also been fantastic. Evan Longoria has missed a few games lately with a hamstring injury, but should play.

The good news here is that the Padres don’t have to worry about the Ryan Weathers or Dinelson Lamet injuries in this series. Those can wait until later.

Lineups

Fernando Tatis Jr., SS
Trent Grisham, CF
Manny Machado, 3B
Eric Hosmer, 1B
Wil Myers, RF
Jake Cronenworth, 2B
Jurickson Profar, LF
Victor Caratini, C

Caratini will definitely be in the lineup in game 1, with Darvish starting, but it’d be great to see Nola behind the dish and in the lineup on Saturday. I’m putting Profar in LF because Pham is batting a calf injury and has gotten off to a slow start.

Tommy La Stella, 2B
Brandon Belt, 1B
Evan Longoria, 3B
Alex Dickerson, LF
Buster Posey, C
Brandon Crawford, SS
Austin Slater, CF
(Right Field)

Not sure who will play RF for the Giants, as their regular options are either injured or recently traded to the Yankees. They could recall the light-hitting Skye Bolt (what a name!) from their alternate training site or just stick Darin Ruf out there.

Expectations

Early on in the season, the Giants have a magic about them. Not only are they playing well, they’re also getting lucky. Buster Posey and Evan Longoria have been tearing the cover off the ball, which feels unlikely to hold since they are both on the downside of their careers.

The Padres can’t really afford to be in 3rd place in the NL West much longer, and they can’t drop another home series to the Giants and expect that it won’t come back to bite them later. San Diego has had a hard time getting up for anyone but the Dodgers, but they need to find a way to play with that same energy in this series to take care of business against the Giants.

I think they’ll do it. I’m predicting a series win for the Padres.