Padres Preview: 07/03 @ Athletics

A day off to travel north brings the Padres to The Town to face off against the Oakland A’s in interleague action tonight.

Clayton Richard (7-7, 4.29 ERA) had his 4-game pitcher winning streak snapped in his last appearance against the Texas Rangers. In a losing effort the veteran lefty surrendered 4 earned runs on 10 hits in 7 innings. At the very least Richard is eating innings and allowing the bullpen to rest during his starts; Richard hasn’t thrown less than 6 innings in over 2 months worth of starts (at least since May 2nd). With some relievers starting to fray with overusage (hello, slumping Brad Hand and Adam Cimber) having a starter go most of the distance can only serve the Padres well going into the 2nd half of the season. Clayton is 1-1 with a 3.21 ERA against Oakland in 3 appearances and 2 starts, 9-5 with a 3.50 ERA in interleague play as a whole.

Opposing Richard is Chris Bassitt (1-3, 2.82 ERA). The 29-year-old righty is coming off a strong performance in Detroit that saw him throw 6 innings of 2 hit ball with nary a run allowed in a 3-0 win. Prior to the win Chris had less desirable results, losing 3 in a row since being called up from AAA Nashville in the beginning of June before breaking through against the Tigers. This will be Bassitt’s first game against the Padres and while his interleague ERA is solid (2.45) he does not have a win to show for it in 2 starts.

In Padres roster news best pitcher in the bullpen Kirby Yates will be taking paternity leave (Ho’omaika’i ‘ana to him) and Colten Brewer will take his place. Stay tuned for a Luis Perdomo start tomorrow.

Tonight’s game starts up at 6:05 PM.

Game Time: 6:05 PM PST
TV: FSSD, Fox Sports Deportes (Spanish)
Radio: 97.3, XEMO 860 (Español)