The Padres’ homestand against the Nationals comes with a little extra juice, and it starts with a familiar face making his way back into the rotation.
San Diego opens a three-game set Monday against Washington after taking a series from the Yankees, and the club is still sitting a half-game behind the Arizona Diamondbacks for the National League’s third and final wild-card spot. The Nationals arrive on the other side of the spectrum, out of the playoff picture since the trade deadline and mired in a four-game skid after being swept by the Dodgers.
The matchup also brings a reminder of how the teams got here. When they met in Washington from May 29-31, the Padres dropped two of three.
Monday’s opener features the most notable pitching storyline of the series: RHP Nick Pivetta vs. RHP Jake Irvin.
Craig Stammena announced that Pivetta is coming off the 60-day injured list to make his long-awaited return to the Padres rotation. He last appeared on April 12, when he left his fourth start of the season with an elbow injury and landed on the IL. Before the setback, Pivetta posted a 4.50 ERA with 24 strikeouts in 16 innings.
“His last outing, seeing the fastball command that he had and the command of all his pitches - his curveball got a little bit better, got his pitch count up to a spot that we felt comfortable bringing him up to the big leagues and seeing what he has," Stammen said on Sunday. "And then this is his chance to kind of get started, and then we’ll go from there with what the plan is after that.”
There was real concern about the severity of the situation when Pivetta walked off the mound abruptly during his first rehab outing on Aug. 4. A month later, he’s back and in position to help San Diego’s push down the stretch.
Irvin will be on the other side, and his season line shows the kind of uphill climb Washington has dealt with. He is 2-8 with a 5.57 ERA in 18 starts, with 87 strikeouts and 40 walks over 85.2 innings.
Tuesday brings a different kind of test for the Padres, with Mize set to make his seventh start in a San Diego uniform. He’ll be looking to find better footing after a sharp drop from his work with the Detroit Tigers.
With Detroit, he had a 2.70 ERA over 16 starts and 86.2 innings; with the Padres, that number sits at 6.67 ERA over 27 innings. He has 15 strikeouts, nine walks and eight home runs allowed with San Diego.
Washington has not named a starter for that game, though a bullpen approach looks likely. Right-hander Brad Lord opened in that spot last week and worked 3.1 scoreless innings.
The series wraps Wednesday with Walker Buehler against left-hander Jackson Kent.
Buehler has been one of San Diego’s steadier arms lately. He has allowed three runs or fewer in each of his last nine starts, and the Padres have gone 7-2 in that stretch. On the year, he is 8-6 with a 4.56 ERA across 28 starts.
Kent, who made his MLB debut on Aug. 12, has already logged five big league starts. The left-hander is 1-3 with a 5.55 ERA in 24.1 innings.
First pitch Monday is 2:10 p.m. PT/5:10 p.m.
ET. Tuesday’s game begins at 6:40 p.m.
PT/9:40 p.m. ET, and Wednesday’s finale is set for 1:10 p.m.
PT/4:10 p.m. ET.
In Other News...
Nationals Roster Move Adds Intrigue To A Telling Minors Night
While the Nationals farm system cycled through another full slate of minor league action, the night offered a mix of useful development markers across Rochester, Harrisburg, Wilmington and Fredericksburg. There were timely hits, steady innings and a handful of pitching lines that helped round out a busy evening for the organization, the kind of update that often says as much about depth as it does about the box score.
Amid all of that, the roster shuffle at the big league level added an extra layer of intrigue, with right-hander Max Kranick being outrighted from Washington. And because the performances below the surface carried their own weight, the night also stood out for what DJ Herz and Juan Reyes were able to do on the mound, giving the Nationals a couple more reasons to watch those affiliates closely as the season moves along. [Read more 🡒]
Nationals Have A Growing Nasim Nunez Problem At Shortstop
Nasim Nunez has kept himself in the Nationals lineup because of the things he does away from the batters box. His defense and baserunning have value, and Washington has continued to give him chances at shortstop, hoping the rest of his game can help cover for the offensive gaps. But for a player being treated like an everyday option, the bat has been too light for too long, and the underlying numbers only reinforce what the eye test has shown.
The concern now is that the production has slipped even further at a time when the Nationals need more from that spot, not less. Nunezs recent stretch has dragged down an already difficult season at the plate, and it has pushed the question from whether he can survive there to whether Washington can keep running him out regularly without getting burned on offense. [Read more 🡒]
Nationals Bullpen Is Chasing The Wrong Kind Of History
The late-season numbers have been ugly enough for the Nationals bullpen to make unwanted history, and the latest reminder came in a loss tied to Mookie Betts going deep. Washington has now seen 16 different pitchers record blown saves this season, a sign of how many different arms have been asked to shoulder the problem while manager Blake Butera keeps trying to piece together workable innings out of a unit that has spent most of the year under pressure.
There is still more uncertainty ahead, too, because one of the more important relief options is dealing with a forearm issue that could keep him out for a while. For a staff already chasing the wrong kind of milestone, any absence only adds to the challenge of keeping games within reach and avoiding another entry in a season full of negative firsts. [Read more 🡒]