Padres Preview: 06/26 @ Rangers

A lead lost thanks to the umps calling a third strike a foul tip (that never touched a bat) and a loss brings us to this afternoon with Tyson Ross pitching against his former club.

Are the Padres going to deal Tyson Ross (5-5, 3.34 ERA)? That remains one of the larger questions for a Padres starting rotation where Tyson has functioned as a stalwart every 5th game. In his last game in San Francisco Ross was just that, pitching 7 innings and allowing only 1 run for an anemic offense to squander in a loss. Rangers fans will remember Ross in his time as a Ranger as the “still recovering from thoracic outlet surgery” version. In 12 appearances for Texas the righty posted a 7.71 ERA but was only half a year removed from his procedure. This year’s Tyson Ross figures to be a topic of trade banter for a hopeful contender and Padres fans are looking for A.J. Preller to snag some more talent for the future.

The Rangers are sending Austin Bibens-Dirkx (1-1, 4.58 ERA) to the mound. A career minor leaguer with a name that could probably score heavy in Scrabble, Austin made his debut last year with the Rangers and resigned with the club after electing free agency in the offseason, having pitched in both starting and relief roles. The 33-year-old righty and quasi-converted relief pitcher (sort of the same vein as Matt Strahm but with more innings) will be making his 4th start of the season after winning his last 2 starts against Seattle and Kansas City. Against KC in his last outing the product of Salem, Oregon pitched 6 and change, not striking out any and yielding only 1 run in the oddball no-strikeout quality start.

This afternoon’s game is another after-work special at 5:05 PM.

Game Time: 5:05 PM PST
TV: FSSD, Fox Sports Deportes (Español)
Radio: 97.3, XEMO 860 (Spanish)