The San Diego Padres will be severely short handed this weekend when they head back home to take on one of the best teams in the National League. Fernando Tatis Jr., Jorge Mateo, Jurickson Profar, Wil Myers, and Eric Hosmer are on the IL due to COVID reasons, which means that Jayce Tingler has to work with a lineup that has four replacement players in it.

San Diego was still able to win the series in Colorado to improve to 21-17. Victor Caratini and Manny Machado had big series, as both totaled at least four RBI and a homer.

As for the Cardinals, they are playing great baseball right now (22-15). They have a two-game lead in the NL Central at the moment, and a big reason why is because of former Colorado Rockie Nolan Arenado.

Arenado came over in the puzzling trade this past offseason, and has sent six balls over the fence already with 23 RBI.

FOX and ESPN probably aren’t too happy right now because they are airing a game each this weekend, but won’t get Tatis, Hosmer, or Myers like they originally would’ve gotten to see if this COVID problem didn’t come up.

Here are the start times and pitching matchups:

Friday, May 14 (7:10 pm): Johan Oviedo (STL) vs. Joe Musgrove (SD)

TV: Bally Sports SD, Radio: 97.3 The Fan

Johan Oviedo isn’t a known commodity in the big leagues because he hasn’t consistently been in the majors. Oviedo is coming up from Triple-A Memphis where he allowed four runs on Sunday.

Joe Musgrove had a great start to his Padres career, obviously throwing the no-hitter and winning NL Pitcher of the Week. But after his first four starts, it has gone downhill. The El Cajon native has allowed nine earned runs in his last two starts, bumping up his ERA to 3.

Musgrove will have another tough matchup in the series opener.

Saturday, May 15 (5:40 pm): Adam Wainwright (STL) vs. Chris Paddack (SD)

TV: FS1, Radio: 97.3 The Fan

This game is the first of two nationally televised games this weekend and it will be a good pitching matchup if we are going to get the same type of performance that Paddack had last Sunday against San Francisco.

Paddack hasn’t had a great start to his third season in the big leagues, as he always has had a bad inning that derailed his start. But, he seemed to have found something last weekend because he didn’t allow a run over three innings of work, and featured a well located fastball up in the zone at 97 mph.

Possibly Paddack will see this start as a revenge game because in his last start against St. Louis, he went 2.1 innings and allowed six earned runs in Game 1 the NL Wild Card series last year.

Sunday, May 16 (4:08 pm): Kwang Hyun Kim (STL) vs. Ryan Weathers (SD)

TV: ESPN, Radio: 97.3 The Fan

The Padres will be on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball for the second time this season. The last time they appeared on Sunday night, they had a comeback for the ages—coming back from a six-run deficit against the Dodgers to win in extras on a sac fly from Eric Hosmer.

This Sunday night though, it will be at home and Ryan Weathers will be on the mound. It was a bit of a surprising move that Tingler announced following Wednesday’s doubleheader in Colorado because this was Dinelson Lamet’s day to start. Of course, Lamet could piggyback either Paddack on Saturday or Weathers on Sunday but he is better suited as a starter so he probably pitches against Colorado on Monday.

Weathers pitched three scoreless innings on Sunday in relief of Paddack, and has shown his ability to pitch in any big situation the Padres want him to pitch in. Weathers has yet to allow a run against the Dodgers so I don’t see him struggling against the Cardinals lineup. The lefty holds a 0.81 ERA with 20 strikeouts.