San Diego Padres manager Mike Shildt has faith that Luis Arraez will work his way out of a month-long slump at the plate.
Arraez, after all, is a three-time batting champion.
After keeping Arraez out of the starting lineup on Wednesday, Shildt is expected to pencil him back into his traditional No. 2 spot in the batting order on Friday when the Padres open a three-game series against the Minnesota Twins in Minneapolis.
“Listen, the lineups are always fluid,” Shildt said. “I know people like to think about them, rightfully so. Luis got a day (off on Wednesday), came off the bench, good teammate. But Luis Arraez still has the (third-most) hits in the National League, second-most multiple-hit games, big part of our club.”
Arraez is just 2-for-18 at the plate over his last four starts, and his batting average has dipped to .233 in August.
“I’m a human,” Arraez said. “Every player has a bad year, bad weeks, bad months. I just try to work hard every day, do the little things to help the team win.”
The Padres dropped a 4-3 decision to the Seattle Mariners on Wednesday afternoon. The Los Angeles Dodgers completed a sweep of the Cincinnati Reds later that night to extend their lead over second-place San Diego in the National League West to two games.
The Padres will turn to left-hander Nestor Cortes (2-2, 4.66 ERA) to start Friday’s game opposite Minnesota right-hander Zebby Matthews (3-4, 5.30).
Cortes allowed just one hit and struck out three batters over six scoreless innings in a 5-1 victory over the Dodgers last Saturday.
“Just going out there and being able to produce for those guys and just put up zeros every single inning, just give a team chance to win, I think that’s what the starting pitcher role is,” Cortes said, per the San Diego Union-Tribune. “… And that’s what I did.”
That’s quite the contrast from his previous three outings in a San Diego uniform, in which he yielded seven runs on 16 hits — including four homers — in 15 innings.
Cortes, 30, is 2-2 with a 4.13 ERA in seven career appearances (five starts) versus Minnesota.
Matthews recorded his second straight no-decision last Friday after permitting four runs on eight hits in 4 2/3 innings against the Chicago White Sox.
Matthews, 25, lost his lone encounter versus San Diego, permitting five runs (two earned) on four hits in five innings.
The Twins tumbled to their 10th loss in 13 games with a 9-8 setback to the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday.
Byron Buxton belted a pair of solo home runs and Luke Keaschall and Brooks Lee also went deep for Minnesota, which was thwarted in its bid to win consecutive games for the first time since three games from Aug. 5-8.
“You’ve got to keep each other up,” Buxton said. “Obviously, the last couple of at-bats (of the game) for me didn’t go the way I wanted to. So I’ve had a few guys coming here just to let me know it’s perfectly fine. And just knowing they got my back — and they know I got their back — that’s what’s going to make us turn that page a little bit quicker, rather than walking around here moping. We’re going to be fine. That’s the exciting part about moving forward.”
–Field Level Media
