The Padres are back home Friday after a rough 1-5 road trip, tied for the final NL Wild Card spot with 22 games left, and they’re walking straight into one of the oddest pitching setups they could get.
Max Fried is slated to start for the Yankees, but Will Warren is expected to follow him. That turns one game into a two-starter problem for San Diego, and it’s not the kind of puzzle a struggling offense wants to face.
Fried is coming off his first start back from an elbow injury, and it was a short one: 63 pitches over 3 2/3 innings. Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Fried will probably stay in a similar workload range Friday. Warren, meanwhile, is fresh off seven innings of one-run baseball against Boston and is lined up to take over for the bulk of what’s left.
That makes the obvious plan less useful than it looks. Normally, a pitch limit like Fried’s would tempt a lineup into trying to get into the bullpen early. But if Warren is waiting behind him, the Padres may not get the soft spot they’d usually be hunting.
That matters because San Diego’s offense has already been stuck in a frustrating groove. Even with Fernando Tatis Jr. homering twice Tuesday, the Padres still went 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position.
Back at home, they need a sharper start than that, because Fried has the kind of profile that can keep a lineup quiet if it gets impatient. He owns a 2.80 ERA and has held opponents to a .198 batting average this season.
The left-right switch only adds to the challenge. Fried brings a veteran left-handed look, command, and a deep arsenal.
Warren then comes in from the right side with the ability to work through the lineup multiple times. Any lineup Craig Stammen builds with Fried in mind could lose some of that matchup edge once Warren enters, which makes it fair to expect San Diego to lean on its bench as much as possible.
There’s also plenty on the line beyond the weirdness of the pitching plan. A Padres win, paired with a Diamondbacks loss in Houston, would move San Diego back above the playoff line. If the Padres lose and Arizona wins, San Diego would drop to 1 1/2 games back with only 21 games remaining.
The Yankees, sitting at 80-60 and firmly in control of the top American League Wild Card spot, can use this kind of arrangement to manage workloads and protect relievers. For the Padres, it’s a playoff-pressure night disguised as an interleague game.
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