The San Diego Padres are back at Petco Park to take on the Kansas City Royals. A brutal stretch of games against postseason contenders comes to a close this weekend in the Gaslamp.
The Padres (40-34, 3rd in NL West) salvaged a game at Dodger Stadium on Thursday, riding a 4-for-4 performance from shortstop Xander Bogaerts to emerge victorious by a final score of 5-3. The animosity fueled series concluded with both Fernando Tatis Jr. and Shohei Ohtani being plunked in the contests late innings, and a benches clearing altercation between Dodgers manager Dave Roberts and Padres skipper Mike Shildt.
Winners of three straight, the Royals (37-38, 4th in AL Central) are coming off a sweep of the Texas Rangers after a 4-1 win. Rookie outfielder Jac Caglianone slugged his first two career homers, while right-hander Michael Wacha tossed six strong innings of one-run baseball in the triumph.
San Diego is 10-17 in interleague play this season. It will also be interesting to see how they handle facing a familiar face in the series' Sunday finale.
Pitching matchups
Friday: Royals RHP Michael Lorenzen (4-7, 4.91 ERA) vs. Padres RHP Nick Pivetta (7-2, 3.40 ERA) 6:40 p.m. PT
Lorenzen enters his start having tossed back-to-back quality starts against the Chicago White Sox and Athletics. He's 1-4 in his last seven starts, posting a 5.59 ERA and 1.32 WHIP in 38 2/3 innings pitched in that stretch.
Padres right-hander Nick Pivetta secured his seventh win of the campaign against the Arizona Diamondbacks on June 15. The hurler threw seven innings against the Snakes, striking out nine batters while only issuing one walk on a total of 94 pitches.
Saturday: Royals LHP Noah Cameron (2-2, 1.91 ERA) vs. Padres RHP Dylan Cease (2-6, 4.69 ERA) 4:15 p.m. PT
The Royals rookie lefty makes the eighth start of his career against San Diego in the middle game of the set, having blanked the Athletics through five innings in his previous outing. Noah Cameron will see a second National League opponent after facing the St. Louis Cardinals twice earlier this season.
After throwing seven scoreless innings and striking out 11 batters against the Dodgers on June 10, it seemed Dylan Cease was back to being his ace self again. Despite nine strikeouts through five innings on Monday night against L.A., Cease unraveled to give up six earned runs on eight hits, taking the loss in a 6-3 Dodgers victory. Looking for a bounce back outing, the hard-throwing righty goes up against a Royals club he faced regularly as a member of the Chicago White Sox. In his career, Cease is 5-4 with a 3.50 ERA and 104 strikeouts in 16 career starts against Kansas City.
Sunday: Royals RHP Seth Lugo (4-5, 3.05 ERA) vs. Padres RHP Randy Vásquez (3-4, 3.70 ERA) 1:10 p.m. PT
A familiar face, former Padre Seth Lugo gets the nod for Sunday's series finale for the Royals. The All-Star pitcher is coming off a one run, six inning performance against the Rangers. Lugo makes his first start against the Friars since signing a multi-year deal with Kansas City ahead of the 2024 season.
Randy Vásquez looks to continue a stretch of solid starts. The 26 year-old threw five innings while giving up three runs to the Dodgers on Tuesday night. As walks have been an issue for him, Vásquez has managed to only issue one free pass in his last two starts. He's posted a 3.63 ERA with a 10 walks to 25 strikeout ratio in his last seven outings.
Who's hot?
Royals:
3B Maikel Garcia is hot over his last seven contests, hitting .370 and a 1.000 OPS. C Salvador Perez has notched eight extra-base hits in the month of June to go along with 12 RBI. SS Bobby Witt Jr. went 5-for-11 (.455 BA) with a home run against Texas over the weekend.
Padres:
1B Luis Arraez has heated up in his last 32 at-bats, collecting 13 total bases and two extra-base hits. 1B Gavin Sheets enters the series riding a 10 game hitting streak, batting .400 over his last 25 chances at the plate with five RBI in the span. Despite his uncertain status for the three game set, Tatis Jr. finally has it going at the plate. Posting an OPS of .950 over his last seven games, he's also collected 10 hits while scoring nine times. LHP Adrian Morejon continues his impressive season out of the bullpen. In his last 15 appearances, Morejon has collected 16 strikeouts while only walking two batters in 11 2/3 innings pitched.
Early takeaways
The Royals enter the one and a half games out of the third American League Wild Card spot. A young team centered around superstar shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., Kansas City hopes to get back into the postseason picture as trade deadline season approaches. They made noise last October by sweeping the Baltimore Orioles in the wild card round. Getting back there is definitely a goal for K.C. as the summer rolls in.
Using the momentum from the last game at Chavez Ravine could help the Padres turn their recent fortunes around. They look to make up ground in both the divisional and wild card standings, as they're 3-7 in their last 10 games. Tatis Jr. is scheduled for an MRI and CT scan on his right hand following the hit by pitch on Thursday night. For the Friars, any positive news on their franchise right-fielder will be taken with a sigh of relief.