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Last night’s game was a cold affair in all aspects: the pitching debut of Eric Lauer, the bats, the weather. Tyson Ross will look to heat the Padres back up in the series finale against the Rocks in a battle of staff aces (yeah, I said it).
Do I need to tell you about Tyson’s last outing? You were watching it, weren’t you? Ross spun an absolute gem in his last game against Arizona and was on the precipice of Padres history if not for the righty being at over 120 pitches in the 8th inning and a costly Franchy Cordero misplay. In any case the game was an absolute statement that the Tyson Ross of old is back and might even be better than before. Ross (2-1, 2.81 ERA) now sports several looks to many of the pitches fans have grown used to seeing from the 31-year-old: his 2 seam now has a cutter action to it and the ever-present wipeout slider is now thrown with different degrees of slide. Ross’s resurgence after a lost 2016 and struggling 2017 has been a feel good story not only for Padres fans but around baseball.
A story that has not been great lately is that of Jon Gray (1-4, 7.09 ERA). The Rockies righty is currently in a 3 game tailspin with a painful 10.34 ERA in those last 3 starts. His last outing against the Cubs was one to forget: Gray yielded 7 runs (6 earned) on 8 hits over 5 innings. Interestingly enough Gray’s only win was against these Padres back on April 4th. Jon pitched 7 scoreless in a 5-2 win. While Tyson Ross’s career numbers against Colorado haven’t been strong either he has also won his last appearance against the Rocks back on April 3rd in an 8-4 victory for the Friars.
The Padres will again be without two of their more potent bats: Christian Villanueva and Eric Hosmer will take the day and tomorrow’s off day for a chance to reappear for Friday’s contest back home.
Today’s lunchtime game will be an opportunity for the Padres to seize their first series win since beating San Francisco 10 days ago. Let’s go, Padres!
Game Time: 12:10 PM PST
TV: FSSD, Fox Sports Deportes (Spanish)
Radio: 97.3 (Fan Diego?), XEMO 860 (Español)