The San Diego Padres’ lineup is getting tested in the series against the host Miami Marlins.
San Diego prevailed 2-1 in a game started by Miami’s Eury Perez on Monday but lost to Edward Cabrera 4-3 on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, the Padres will face their third straight hard-throwing right-hander as Sandy Alcantara — the National League’s 2022 Cy Young Award winner — takes the mound.
Padres manager Mike Shildt, though, remains confident in his hitters.
“I think our approach at the plate can carry us every night,” Shildt said on Tuesday. “It’s something we’ve addressed. It’s about taking a quality at-bat.”
Alcantara (4-9, 7.14 ERA) is 2-2 with a 4.04 ERA in six career starts against the Padres, and he pitched poorly in a no-decision at San Diego on May 28. He yielded six runs on seven hits in four innings, walking four and failing to record a strikeout for only the third time in his career.
The 29-year-old right-hander has struggled this season after missing last year following elbow surgery. The Marlins are 8-11 when Alcantara starts. In 2022, Miami went 19-13 when he got the ball.
As for Miami’s bullpen, it has been surprisingly good, led by Anthony Bender (1.91 ERA), Cade Gibson (2.59) and Ronny Henriquez (3.00).
Marlins manager Clayton McCullough had praise for Henriquez, who gave up two runs in the ninth inning on Tuesday but held on for his sixth save.
“That was great for Ronny,” McCullough said of Henriquez, who is in his first year with the Marlins. “We’ve put him in a variety of situations, and he continues to be a key cog.”
Miami placed backup outfielder Derek Hill on the injured list on Wednesday due to a sprained left middle finger.
He joins a lengthy list of injured Marlins, but the team has been playing solid baseball for more than a month, going 22-12 in the past 34 games.
The Padres will look to bounce back on Wednesday behind Dylan Cease (3-9, 4.64 ERA), who is 0-1 with a 2.45 ERA in two career starts against Miami.
The right-hander will be starting just two days short of the one-year anniversary of his no-hitter against the Washington Nationals.
Cease is coming off a scoreless outing vs. the Nationals on Friday, when he pitched 5 1/3 innings and gave up just four hits and no walks while striking out 10. That contest followed a three-start streak in which Cease lost each time and pitched to a 7.31 ERA.
He has registered six quality starts in 20 outings this year, but his most recent quality start came on June 21.
The Padres are 3-2 on their current 10-game road trip, during which Luis Arraez has rediscovered his stroke. The three-time batting champion, who went 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI single on Tuesday, is 8-for-20 (.400) while hitting safely in all five games on the trip.
Arraez had gone 1-for-20 in the final five games before the All-Star break. His average is still just .286, which would be the lowest of his career.
–Field Level Media
