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The Padres found themselves on the losing end of yet another shutout last night in their series opener against the Mets. Hopefully they can get some runs home tonight as Ian Kennedy makes the start against Noah Syndergaard in game 2.
Kennedy's 7.15 ERA tops the majors amongst pitchers with eight or more starts this season. His latest outing saw him yield seven earned runs and leave the game after only 3 2/3 innings. It was the fourth of his eight starts this season that lasted fewer than five innings, as well as the fourth outing in which he allowed five or more earned runs. But Kennedy has reportedly been working with Darren Balsley on some slight adjustments to his pitching mechanics and had a really successful bullpen session on Saturday, so he'll try to replicate those results today and work on getting that ERA down.
Kennedy has been lucky/successful against the Mets in the past. In eight career starts against the New York club, he is 4-2 with a 4.66 ERA. But both he and the Padres will have to play better tonight to even up the series against the first-place Mets and their phenom rookie pitcher.
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Syndergaard is coming off the best outing, by far, of his short major league career. The young righty tossed 7 1/3 innings of scoreless baseball his last time out, his fastball reaching 100-mph speeds. He also launched his first career home run in that game to help the first-place Mets to their 29th win of the season. Tonight he makes his fifth start - of the season and of his career - after going 2-2 with a 1.83 ERA in his first four.
Hopefully Yonder Alonso's return to the lineup tonight will ease some of the stress on the Padres' infield defense and give the offense some help as well. Prior to his injury and subsequent DL trip, Alonso was batting .333 with an .864 OPS in 26 games this season. That's the best batting average on the team and second-best OPS, behind Justin Upton. The corresponding roster move sent Corey Mazzoni back to Triple-A El Paso. That means one less relief pitcher in the bullpen, but also one more hitter on the bench.
Game time: 7:10 pm PT
TV: Fox Sports San Diego, Fox Deportes San Diego (Sp.)
Radio: The Mighty 1090, XEMO 860 (Sp.)