Series Preview: Padres vs. Blue Jays
Tomorrow, in the far away land of Canada, the San Diego Padres will start a series against the Toronto Blue Jays. This is an attempt to preview that series.
The San Diego Padres are traveling out of the states and about 2,600 miles away to take on the Toronto Blue Jays for a three game series at Rogers Centre that starts tomorrow. Here's (mostly) everything you need to know to be ready to watch all three games.
Team Records
Padres
27-18
2nd place in NL West (1.0 GB)
Blue Jays
22-24
3rd place in AL East (5.0 GB)
Pitching matchups
Dylan Cease vs. Chris Bassitt
Randy Vasquez vs. Kevin Gausman
Stephen Kolek vs. Bowden Francis
Dylan Cease has been fantastic in his last two starts. In fact, he hasn't given up more than 2 earned runs in any start since his disaster start in Sacramento. On the other hand, Chris Bassitt started out the season on fire but gave up 4 earned runs in 3 of 4 starts (and 3 in the other other) before a good outing against the Rays last time on the bump.
Kevin Gausman, similarly, has had a rough go of it lately. He has given up 6 runs in 2 of his last 4 starts and currently sports an ERA of 4.59. He'll be matched up against Randy Vasquez, who has pitched well all season outside of a single blowup outing in Detroit where he gave up 6 runs in 2 innings.
Stephen Kolek is going to be a very interesting watch. After dominating anemic lineups in Pittsburgh and Colorado, Kolek looked like he was figured out at home against the Mariners. It's likely he would've lost this start, and maybe his place in the rotation, to Yu Darvish if the veteran was ready to go in this series. Bowden Francis, by contrast, has given up 3+ earned runs in his last 5 starts. He's failed to get out of the 5th inning in most of them.
What to watch for
The superstars
Fernando Tatis Jr. and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. have always been linked to each other, as the children of former MLB players that hail from the Dominican Republic. However, they won't be the only superstars in this series.
Manny Machado, Jackson Merrill and Luis Arráez will all add some more intrigued and attention to these games, as well as George Springer and Bo Bichette for Toronto.
With all of these big money superstars playing against each other, we can hope that they bring out the best in each other and we can probably count on one or two of them determining the outcomes of some of these games.
The Jason Heyward situation
Things are definitely getting a little weird between the Padres and their starting LF. Heyward has started in just two of the last six Padres games, sitting three times against right-handed starting pitchers.
It is obvious that he has fallen out of favor after starting the season with a .177/.227/.278 slashline. Those numbers would be career lows, but they're not far from the hitter he was on the Cubs in 2022 before being "fixed" by the Dodgers in 2023.
If he continues to play sparingly in Toronto against three right-handed starting pitchers, the rumor mill will spin out of control with who A.J. Preller is looking to replace him with as the team's everyday left fielder.
No days off
After having today (May 19th) off, the Padres won't have another one off until May 29th. Over that span, they'll travel internationally and across six times zones (there and back).
Padres manager Mike Shildt has already begun giving guys a game here or there at DH so that they can "rest" while staying in the lineup. I'd expect to see more of that, in this series and on this road trip, especially if we see more of Gavin Sheets in left field.
Similarly, it will be interesting to see how Shildt manages his pitchers over this long stretch without a day off. The bullpen has shown signs of wearing down due to overuse, and they certainly can not be counted on to close out nine games in nine days. Can the starters go a little deeper into games or will the back end of the bullpen have to come through for San Diego? Guess we'll find out.
