Newcomers have already made a significant impact for San Diego, and they’ll aim to continue that trend as the Padres open a three-game home series against the Boston Red Sox.
Ramon Laureano has hit like a sledgehammer in his first week with the Padres, while Freddy Fermin has given them more offense from the catching position than they’ve had most of the year.
Mason Miller has made his presence felt on an already-deep San Diego bullpen, and Nestor Cortes gave them a decent start on Wednesday night.
Then Ryan O’Hearn, who came over with Laureano from Baltimore a week ago, made his first significant contribution to his new team with a ninth-inning homer that tied Wednesday night’s game in Arizona. The Padres added another run in the ninth to pull out a 3-2 win.
Prior to drilling his first homer off a left-handed pitcher this year, O’Hearn had just a single to show for his first 12 at-bats with San Diego. The American League’s starting designated hitter in the All-Star Game last month needed something good to happen.
“Just got to keep going, keep getting comfortable, keep grinding out at-bats and hopefully continue to contribute,” O’Hearn said. “To do something finally felt good.”
The Padres come into the series with nine wins in 11 games and have crawled within two games of the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West.
They have also jumped over the New York Mets for the second wild-card spot and have drawn within 2 1/2 games of the Chicago Cubs for the first wild card, which opens the postseason at home.
San Diego will try to keep the momentum going behind Nick Pivetta (11-3, 2.73 ERA). He last pitched on Aug. 1, allowing just one hit and one run in seven innings of a 4-1 win over St. Louis. Pivetta, who walked none and fanned five that night, has permitted just one run in 13 innings in two previous starts against Boston, where he pitched the last 4 1/2 seasons.
The Red Sox will counter with Walker Buehler (6-6, 5.74 ERA), who was no-decisioned on Saturday in his team’s 7-3 victory over Houston. Buehler gave up nine hits and three runs in 4 1/3 innings, walking three and whiffing none — the first time this season he failed to record a strikeout. He’s 6-1 with a 1.80 ERA in 12 career starts against the Padres.
Boston manager Alex Cora said Buehler is better than he’s pitched this year. The former Dodger mainstay has permitted at least three earned runs in nine of his last 11 outings.
“This guy is too important for us,” Cora said. “He knows he’s better than this and we know he’s better than this.”
Buehler’s uneven performance has been one of the few problems lately for the Red Sox, who won seven straight games prior to Wednesday night’s 7-3 home loss to Kansas City.
Boston trails Toronto by four games in the American League East and owns the top wild-card spot by one game over Seattle.
The Red Sox’s trade of Rafael Devers to San Francisco in June, which was widely criticized by national media, has turned out to be addition by subtraction. Boston is 27-16 since the deal and is scoring more runs than it did with Devers while playing better defense.
San Diego won two of three games in last year’s series at Fenway Park.
–Field Level Media
