Diamondbacks at Padres Game Preview April 3rd

Diamondbacks at Padres, at Petco Park, 6:40 P.M. PST/MST

Television: Bally Sports Arizona; SD: Bally Sports San Diego

Radio: Arizona Sports 98.7 FM Phoenix, KHOV Univision 105.1 FM (Spanish) ;SD: KWFN 97.3 FM, XEMO 860 AM

Pitching Matchups

AZ: Ryne Nelson RHP, Career: 1-1, 1.47 ERA, 3.77 FIP in 3 Games, 18.1 IP

SD: Ryan Weathers LHP, Career: 4-7, 5.49 ERA, 4.75 FIP, in 31 Games, 98.1 IP

Nelson made his major league debut last year in San Diego, throwing seven scoreless innings. After throwing six more scoreless innings in his second start, he also made his third start against the Padres. That one did not go quite as well as he gave up four runs in 5.1 innings, and then was shut down for the season.

He came into spring training as the favorite to win the fifth starter's role and got better as spring training progressed, beating out Drey Jameson in the competition for the last rotation spot. In his final spring tuneup on March 28th he used five pitches, Fastball, Changeup, Curveball, Cutter and Slider. His fastball velocity was 93 MPH, which is 1.8 MPH slower than it was last year.

Ryan Weathers pitched in 31 games for the Padres in 2021, making 18 starts and posting a 5.42 ERA. He spent all of last year in the Pacific Coast League, posting a 6.73 ERA in Triple-A. He got just one major league start in 2022, and did not have a great spring training either, giving up five home runs and six walks in 14.1 innings. He did strike out 20 however. Weather is primarily a fastball/slider guy who will mix in a few changeups. His fastball velocity was just shy of 94 MPH the last couple of seasons.

LINEUPS

Torey Lovullo is going with his right-handed heavy lineup against the lefty weathers. One wrinkle is Ketel Marte and Kyle Lewis have been flip-flopped, with Marte leading off instead of Lewis. Lewis had struck out six times in eight leadoff at bats in two previous starts. The Diamondbacks were overly aggressive in the four game series against the Dodgers drawing just one walk while striking out 29 times. Marte has been hitting the ball hard when he makes contact but is not elevating the ball and is not having patient at bats. Perhaps batting leadoff will prompt a more patient approach from the mercurial second baseman.

Christian Walker started off hot in L.A., going 6-14, .429, including a homer of Clayton Kershaw. It was the fifth homer of his career against the future Hall of Famer.

The Padres lineup features Juan Soto, Manny Machado, and Xander Bogaerts. Those three alone combine for over $65 million in payroll in 2023, which is more than half the D-backs total payroll. Bogaerts has gotten off to a quick start, homering twice in the Padres opening four game series against the Rockies. The Padres split that series, and the Giants at 1-2 are the only team in the NL West that doesn't have a 2-2 record.

Fernando Tatis Jr. is still serving his suspension for performance enhancing substances and is not eligible to return to play until April 20th.

Add us as a preferred source on Google