The Padres host the Rangers in Peoria today. Ian Kennedy will make the start and later Alex Torres will make his Spring Training / Padres debut.
After notching their second win of the Spring yesterday behind some hot hitting, the Padres are back in Peoria today to take on the Rangers. Ian Kennedy gets his second start of the Spring and he'll try to follow up his two scoreless innings against the Royals last Saturday with another solid performance this afternoon.
Kennedy worked tirelessly through the Winter and has continued that effort all Spring. With the help of pitching coach Darren Balsley and the opportunity he's getting from the Padres to find success on the mound again, the right-hander hopes to get back to his 2011 form, when he got 21 wins and finished in 4th place in the Cy Young Award voting. He's already pretty much set to have a spot in the starting rotation come Opening Night, and he'll be looking to build on an already promising beginning to his Padres career. After coming to San Diego last year in the trade that sent Joe Thatcher and Matt Stites to Arizona, he went 4-2 in 10 starts, including six outings in which he allowed two or fewer runs.
Scott Merkin tells us that Alex Torres is also slated to get some time on the hill today, making his first game appearance of the Spring after arriving late to camp due to Visa issues. Torres came to San Diego along with Jesse Hahn in the seven-player trade with the Rays earlier this year. Hahn has already impressed this Spring, so Torres will be looking to do the same in his Padres debut.
Meanwhile Texas will send right-hander Alexi Ogandi to the mound. Ogandi is expected to be in one of the middle spots in the Rangers rotation coming out of camp this season. He had a little trouble against the Royals last week when he made his Spring debut, giving up a couple of runs on four hits in two innings of work. The Padres will also get looks at Neftali Feliz, Joakim Soria, and Jose Contreras, who are all scheduled for mound time today as reported by MLB writer Tyler Emerick.
Watch/Listen
Game time is at 12:05pm again, and today marks the first Padres game of the year that will be televised on Fox Sports San Diego. FSSD's live broadcast will begin at noon sharp, as will the live MLB.TV broadcast. The game will also be televised, though delayed, on MLB Network starting at 2:00pm. Unfortunately that means no Gameday Audio webcast, but I believe you can still listen to the radio broadcast on At-Bat (with a subscription).