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WHO: San Francisco Giants vs. San Diego Padres
WHAT: Game 1 of 162 aka Opening Day 2019
WHEN: Thursday, March 28th at 1:10pm PT
WHERE: Petco Park
HOW: Watch on FOX Sports San Diego (or MLB.tv), listen on 97.3FM The Fan. Spanish broadcasts on FOX Deportes San Diego and XEMO 860AM.
WHY: The Giants (73-89) and Padres (66-96) finished in the bottom two spots in the NL West last season. While the Padres went big in trying to improve their team, signing Manny Machado to a 10-year contract worth $300M, the Giants essentially stood pat with their squad.
The Giants' Opening Day lineup:
— Maria I. Guardado (@mi_guardado) March 28, 2019
Duggar CF
Belt 1B
Longoria 3B
Posey C
Crawford SS
Joe LF
Reed RF
Panik 2B
Bumgarner P
After flirting with Bryce Harper and just about nobody else in the offseason, San Francisco starts the year with the same infield as last year, the same bullpen as last year, roughly the same rotation as last year, and nobody in the outfield that had 200 ABs in the majors last season (except for weak-hitting Gerardo Parra off the bench).
Your #SDOpeningDay lineup features Manny Machado making his #Padres debut, @tatis_jr making his Major League debut, and @e_lauer10 on the hill for the first time to start this season! pic.twitter.com/AuQuMlRVQi
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) March 28, 2019
Meanwhile, San Diego’s opening day roster looks much different than a year ago. Youngsters Chris Paddack and Fernando Tatis Jr. made the team despite never playing at the AAA level. Franmil Reyes starts in RF on Opening Day, hitting cleanup. Francisco Mejia and his red-hot bat backup Austin Hedges off the bench. Oh, yeah, and that Machado guy.
Unless you actually bought into the offseason of 2015, this is the first Opening Day for Padres fans to really be excited about the direction of their team in over a decade. So, if you’re not already, get excited!