The Padres bullpen has stepped up to fill a hole in San Diego’s rotation.
Eric Hosmer homered
http://www.patriotsauthorizedshop.com/authentic-adrian-clayborn-jersey , San Diego’s bullpen took a perfect game into the sixth inning and the Padres beat the St. Louis Cardinals 4-2 on Tuesday night for their 10th win in 14 games.
This was the third bullpen game for San Diego this season, all since left-hander Joey Lucchesi went down with a right hip strain.
”These guys are all built to kind of grind through a lineup one time or cruise through a lineup or attack a lineup one time through,” Padres manager Andy Green said. ”They’re all built for nine batters pretty easily or 10 batters so it just makes sense to give them those types of pieces of a lineup for a first time through and keep hitters uncomfortable. I like it.”
Padres reliever Matt Strahm started the bullpen game and retired nine batters on 36 pitches, including four strikeouts. Adam Cimber (3-2) retired the next six with two strikeouts before Harrison Bader broke up the perfect game with an infield single in the sixth. Bader was promptly erased in a double play.
”In that situation, I know on a bullpen day, me coming in the fourth inning I’m probably looked at to get at least a few (innings),” Cimber said. ”You still take it one hitter at a time.”
Strahm, a lefty, and Cimber, a submarine righty, make a stark contrast for opposing hitters.
”It’s the opposite end of the spectrum,” Strahm said. ”He’s down on the right and I’m up on the left. It’s a good combo to come in.”
The Padres’ nine-man bullpen makes the starter-by-committee approach effective. Green said he plans to go with it again Sunday.
”We’ve got seven arms available,” Green said. ”I’m going to guess that’s more arms available than almost every team in major league baseball, so it’s not putting the stress on our bullpen that a lot of people presume it is.”
Brad Hand pitched the ninth for his 20th save.
Hosmer drove the first pitch of the fourth inning to center field to give the Padres a 1-0 lead. It was his second home run in three games.
A.J. Ellis tacked on two more with a two-out hit in the fourth. The Cardinals challenged the safe call on the second run, but replay showed the Freddy Galvis beat catcher Yadier Molina’s tag at home plate.
”Basically the first strike you see you want to be aggressive
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Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas (7-2) struck out five in six innings and walked none. He has walked one or less in all seven of his home starts this season, but St. Louis still lost for the second time in three games.
”I felt like my stuff was pretty good today,” Mikolas said. ”I made some pretty good pitches. I think the ball Hosmer hit was a decent pitch.”
Marcell Ozuna’s RBI single snapped the Padres’ shutout bid in the seventh. Ozuna has driven in five runs in his last four games.
”I thought our offense did a pretty good job of getting some things rolling toward the end of the game,” Bader said. ”Just today, it just showed up a little too late.”
TRAINING ROOM
Padres: OF Franchy Cordero (right forearm strain) took batting practice and hopes to begin a rehab in a couple of days.
Cardinals: RHP Matt Bowman (right hand blisters) gave up a run in two innings Monday at Triple-A Memphis and could be activated by the end of the week.
UP NEXT
Cardinals RHP Luke Weaver (3-5, 4.35 ERA) will get the start in the series finale against the Padres and LHP Eric Lauer (2-4, 6.64 ERA) on Wednesday at 7:15 CDT. Weaver has not allowed a run in 12 innings (two career starts) against San Diego. Lauer gave up six runs in 2 1/3 innings against St. Louis on May 11.
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MIAMI — San Francisco Giants rookie left-hander Andrew Suarez will celebrate a homecoming on Wednesday night when he faces the Miami Marlins for the first time.
Suarez, who was a local star at Columbus High as well as the University of Miami, said he will try to approach the game as a business trip.
“I will probably cherish the moment while I’m warming up,” Suarez told the Sun-Sentinel. “But once I step on the mound, it’s game time.”
The 25-year-old is 2-4 with a 5.06 ERA in nine starts this season. His slider eats up lefty batters, holding them to a .208 batting average with one homer and a .562 OPS. Righty batters are hitting .303 with seven homers and an .870 OPS, however.
Suarez was the Giants’ second-round pick in 2015. He started this season as the Giants’ No. 10 prospect overall and No. 2 among lefties. Some scouts had projected him as a two-pitch reliever with his fastball-slider mix. But, largely due to injuries to Madison Bumgarner, Johnny Cueto and Jeff Samardzija
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So far, the Giants are 3-6 when Suarez starts, but they have won two in a row with him on the mound.
Suarez has two quality starts this year — both of them at home. In five road starts this year, Suarez is 1-2 with a 6.75 ERA.
The Marlins will counter Suarez with another rookie left-hander, Caleb Smith (5-6, 3.70 ERA), who made his major league debut last year on July 17 with the New York Yankees.
This will be the 16th major league start for Smith, 26, who leads National League rookies with 79 strikeouts. In his 13 starts this season, he is averaging 10.8 strikeouts per nine innings, which is improved from his 8.7 stat line of 2017. His walk rate of 4.1 is high but yet improved from his 4.8 figure of last year.
But perhaps the biggest improvement for Smith has been cutting his hits per nine innings from 10.1 to 6.6.
The Marlins are 6-7 when they hand the ball to Smith, who has four quality starts this season. In addition, the Marlins have won three of the past four Smith starts. Smith has pitched well at Marlins Park, going 2-2 with a 2.90 ERA in six starts. That compares well to his 3-4, 4.41 mark on the road.
Over his past seven starts
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Neither Suarez (92.1 mph) or Smith (92.7 mph) is overpowering in terms of their average velocity. But Suarez, with plus control and a plus slider, distinguished himself in the minors, going 10-10 with a 3.21 ERA last year between Double A and Triple A.
That success helped earn him a shot at the majors, and now he gets to pitch in front of his home crowd.
“Being able to pitch against the Marlins should be fun,” Suarez said. “I’ve been watching the Marlins since I was little.”
Suarez will be trying to stop the Giants’ two-game losing streak. Miami has won the first two games of this series, including Tuesday’s 3-1 victory in which four Marlins pitchers held the Giants to three hits.
Marlins shortstop JT Riddle had the go-ahead hit, a two-run double, and second baseman Starlin Castro went 2-for-4 with one RBI.
Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford, who entered this series red hot, has gone 0-for-6 with two RBIs in the two games. He is still hitting an impressive .329.
