The San Diego Padres have spent the majority of the regular season scuffling at the plate.
As they search for a series win over the host Texas Rangers on Sunday afternoon in Arlington, Texas, the Padres hope their recent offensive success becomes a trend.
San Diego is tied for scoring the fewest runs (293) in the majors with the Boston Red Sox, but the Padres have 19 runs across their last three games.
Part of the team’s season-long problem has been the lackluster play of veteran Manny Machado, who is batting .178. Machado hasn’t hit below .256 in any of his other 14 major league seasons.
The seven-time All-Star reverted to his former self in San Diego’s 6-4 win over Texas in 10 innings on Saturday, though. He hit a tie-breaking, three-run homer in the 10th inning and drove in five runs for the day to give him 13 homers and 41 RBIs for the season.
“We’ve come to expect Manny to do that every single time that he comes to the plate,” Padres manager Craig Stammen said. “That’s unrealistic, but he’s had the career he’s had, and he’s the person that he is because he has that confidence in himself. That makes him believe in those situations that he’s the best man to be at the plate.”
San Diego will wrap up a nine-game trip on Sunday looking to finish with a winning record after splitting the first eight contests.
The Padres haven’t announced a starting pitcher for the series finale on Sunday.
Texas, meanwhile, had to rearrange its pitching order as right-hander Nathan Eovaldi (6-7, 4.23 ERA) was pushed back a day to Sunday after feeling some left knee soreness.
“Anytime you push someone back, you have a little bit of concern,” Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said on Saturday. “He played catch today, did a little bit of touch and feel, so that was good to see. Today was better than yesterday, a lot better than yesterday. Hopefully, it keeps trending in the right direction.”
Eovaldi will make a rare home start for Texas.
The veteran right-hander has seen his turn in the rotation come on the road in six of his last seven starts. He’s searching for his first win at Globe Life Field since April 29. Last time out, Eovaldi threw seven innings of three-run, six-hit ball, striking out six and walking one in a 6-4 win at the Red Sox last Sunday.
After sporting a 1.73 ERA in 22 starts last year, Eovaldi already has allowed more earned runs this year (41) than in all of last season (25). Following a solid seven-inning performance in Boston, Eovaldi hopes to continue making life easy on his fellow pitchers.
“I always feel like I try to think about that,” Eovaldi said. “I think about the bullpen. I think about where we are in the standings. Everybody says it’s too early, but that’s what I focus on. I feel like I haven’t really been doing my part lately. I haven’t been going deep into games, or if I do, I give up a lot of runs.”
In seven lifetime starts against San Diego, Eovaldi is 2-2 with a 3.35 ERA.
–Field Level Media
