Mexico City Beckons for Diamondbacks and Padres

The Arizona Diamondbacks will be the home team, but not at Chase Field when they play the San Diego Padres this weekend. The games will be held at Estadio Alfredo Harp Helú in Mexico City.

The series is part of the MLB World Tour, and will be the third time Mexico City has hosted a series, the first coming between the Padres and Giants and 2023 and the Astros and Rockies in 2024.

The Padres are red-hot with a 17-8 record, tied with the Dodgers for first place in the NL West. They just came back from an 8-5 deficit against the Rockies at Coors Field, scoring five runs in the top of the ninth, to walk away with a 10-8 victory.

The D-backs are 14-11, having just lost a series to the Chicago White Sox. It was only the second series loss for the Diamondbacks this year, the first coming the opening week of the year against the Dodgers.

Notably, the elevation at Mexico City is 7,350 feet, and the Padres have been in Denver this week. (elevation 5,280 feet). So the Padres are already acclimated to high elevation, as opposed to the D-backs who've been in Phoenix all week.

D-backs and Padres Starting Pitching Matchups

Saturday, April 25 3:05 p.m. MST

Germán Márquez and Zac Gallen Pitching Stats | Jack Sommers

Germán Márquez was signed by the Padres on February 16 following a 10-year career with the Colorado Rockies. Through 2022, the fact that Marquez was one of the most reliable pitchers in MLB was obscured by pitching in Coors Field.

Through 2022, age 27, he had a 4.40 ERA, but once that is park-adjusted it works out to a 111 ERA+ , which is much better than league average. He hardly ever missed a start, making 166 from 2017-2022.

Felled by an elbow injury and Tommy John Surgery, Marquez missed virtually all of 2023-2024, save five starts. He returned in 2025 but was not good, posting 6.72 ERA, or 72 ERA+.

This year he has a 3.86 ERA, but the peripheral indicate his ERA should be over 5.00, as he's given up five homers and struck out 15 while giving up 20 hits in 18.2 innings. That said, he went 5.2 scoreless innings against the Angels in his last start.

Zac Gallen gave up nine hits in 5.2 innings in his last start against the Toronoto Blue Jays, but limited the damage to two runs. Gallen is not getting strikeouts in the early going. His 12.7 K% is half his career average and well below the league average 22% for a starting pitcher.

It's hard to pinpoint the reason why. His fastball velocity is about the same as it's been in years past, averaging 93.8 MPH. But he just doesn't get any swing and miss on it anymore. In 2022 and 2023 his whiff rates were around 20% on the four-seamer. Now it's 4%.

He's using his slider much more than he ever has before, 24% of the time compared to 8% over the previous two seasons. He's getting most of his whiffs with the slider, but those are all coming against right-hand batters. This version of Gallen will struggle to have sustained success.

Saturday April 26, 1:05 p.m. MST

Michael King and Ryne Nelson pitching stats | Jack Sommers

Michael King is a very good pitcher who has had a hard time staying healthy. He's healthy now however, as evidenced by his 2.28 ERA in 27.2 innings and 3-1 record. In three career starts against the D-backs he's 2-0 and has yet to allow an earned run.

King's walk rate is up somewhat in the early going, with 14 free passes. Despite that he's allowed two runs or less in four of his five starts. The hope for Arizona is if he continues to issue walks in Mexico City, there will be a chance to put up a crooked number against him.

Ryne Nelson is coming off the worst start of his major league career, in which he got crushed for eight runs by the Blue Jays on April 19 while recording only one out in the game. While Nelson's peripheral metrics of FIP and xERA are about two full runs lower than his actual ERA, that's of little solace when the peripherals are still over five.

Nelson gave up six walks and four homers in his first two outings, raising some red flags. But then he settled down to pitch two very solid outings, and it appeared he had righted the ship prior to the eight run meltdown.

Bullpens

Mason Miller is one of the biggest stories in MLB this year. In 12 games he has yet to allow an earned run and has struck out 27 batters in 12.1 innings while walking two. He's 9-for-9 in save chances. San Diego ranks fourth in MLB with a 3.12 reliever ERA. It's an annual strength for the Padres.

The D-backs rank 20th with a 4.60 bullpen ERA. Paul Sewald is 7-for-7 in safe chances, but has struggled in tie games, taking the loss each time he's appeared in one. His ERA now stands at 4.50 after a ninth inning blow up on Thursday.

Offense

The D-backs rank 11th in runs scored and seventh in OPS (.723) following a hot stretch at the plate. Ildemaro Vargas is hitting .357 with five homers and a 1.046 OPS, and has a 21 game hitting streak, 18 to start the season. Corbin Carroll has a .976 OPS and leads MLB with four triples.

The Padres are 17th in runs scored despite a team OPS of .682, which ranks 24th. Xander Bogaerts is batting .289 and tied with Ramon Laureano for the team lead in homers with four. Manny Machado has slumped to a .195 average and .620 OPS to start the year.

Add us as a preferred source on Google