With the series even at a game apiece, San Diego and Colorado will face off in a rubber game this afternoon to determine the winner of the three-game set. Our Padres were able to back up a strong pitching performance from Robbie Erlin last night with a strong offensive effort. Today they'll try to do the same for Donn Roach.
Andrew Cashner's trip to the 15-day DL opened up the spot in the rotation for the righty Roach, who has made all of his prior big league appearances out of the bullpen. Roach broke camp with the big league club and made his ML debut on April 2nd. Since then he's totaled 21 innings in relief, allowing seven runs (six earned) while walking eight and striking out 13. That includes an inning against this Rockies team on April 15th at home. He walked two, but allowed no hits and kept them scoreless.
Corey Brock reports that seven Padres relievers will likely be on hand should Roach run into trouble against the Rockies. But Buddy Black expects about a 60-pitch effort from the 24-year-old in his first major league start.
"He can probably give us 60 pitches that we can feel good about," Black said when asked what Roach's ceiling was for a pitch-count.
"He threw two innings the other night [May 15] and had two days off. He has started in his past and he's got a sinkerball where, if it's working, he should be efficient."
#Padres have confidence in turning to Donn Roach to start tomorrow in place of Andrew Cashner. http://t.co/zLxqTAYaR9
— Corey Brock (@FollowThePadres) May 18, 2014
Colorado will send Juan Nicasio to the mound to try to repeat the results of his previous outing against San Diego this season. Nicasio started that April 15th game at Petco Park, lasting six innings and allowing two runs on six hits on the way to his third career win against the Friars. He is undefeated in six starts all-time against San Diego.
But the right-hander is coming off a loss (his second of the season). He surrendered four runs (two earned) in six innings of work against the Reds in Cincinnati. He is 3-0 in his five starts at home this year.
Tune in for the final game of the series and road trip at 1:10 PDT, and see if our Padres will be boarding a happy flight home today.