Wild Card Series at Wrigley Field
Happy Playoff Day, Padres fans!
The San Diego Padres play their first playoff game versus the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field today at 12:08 p.m. Pacific time. The starter for the Padres will be Nick Pivetta, signed late in the offseason to supplement the rotation and then became the ace of the staff. Pivetta brings his 2.87 ERA in 181.2 innings pitched, which is the tops on the team for the starting pitchers.
The Cubs start Matthew Boyd, who has a 3.21 ERA in 31 games with the Cubs in 179.2 innings pitched. Boyd is 34 years old and this is his 11th season in the major leagues and his first season with the Cubs.
The Padres go into the Wild Card Series with a 12-man pitching staff and 14 position players. All five starting pitchers will make the cut as well as Wandy Peralta, Bradgley Rodriguez, David Morgan, Adrian Morejon, Jeremiah Estrada, Mason Miller and Robert Suarez. This gives the Padres two lefties on the pitching staff, Peralta and Morejon, with Yuki Matsui left off the Wild Card roster.
The 13 position players include three catchers, but one of them is not injured Elias Diaz. Diaz, who pulled an oblique during an at-bat, Saturday had a workout and a test of his ability to play yesterday, according to manager Mike Shildt. But this morning the Padres added Martin Maldonado, activated Luis Campusano and named Mason McCoy as the last position player.
In his morning presser from Wrigley Field, Shildt expanded on their decision not to activate Diaz. Despite his ability to do a light workout, Monday the medical team and the organization felt that he was not at a spot where he could play in a game.
It is safe to assume that primary catcher Freddy Fermin will start all of the games, if he is able. Campusano has not started a game at catcher for the Padres this season and should be viewed primarily as an emergency backup or right handed bat off the bench.
It is telling that Campusano, who was 0-for-21 with 11 strikeouts and six walks with the Padres this season, and highly successful in Triple-A, did not earn any extended work with the major league team. It took Diaz getting hurt for him to be called from Arizona to drive the 5.5 hours to San Diego and fly out with the team Sunday night. Don’t expect to see him catching any innings as the primary back up to Fermin. That job most likely will be Martin Maldonado’s, despite being cut from the team in July and not playing major league baseball since then.
The Padres lineup for the first game looks familiar to Padres fans. It features Fernando Tatis Jr. at the top and has three left-handed hitters at six through eight in Ryan O’Hearn, Gavin Sheets and Jake Cronenworth.
The Chicago lineup features lefty Michael Busch leading off and has a mix of lefties and righties with switch-hitter Ian Happ in the three spot, and ends with two righties in Dansby Swanson and Matt Shaw.
The Wild Card Series will be aired on ABC beginning with coverage beginning at Noon on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, if a third game is needed.
Category: General Sports
