The Padres get Yu Darvish back on Monday night. Their All-Star starting pitcher was shut down in Spring Training with an elbow issue and will make his long-awaited 2025 debut against the Diamondbacks.
So, for Sunday night’s series finale against the Rangers they employed a bullpen game. It worked about as well as they could have hoped with six pitchers combining to allow one run in a 4-1 win that gave the Padres a series win over Texas.
Rookie David Morgan was the first one out of the gate. It was a rocky opener. Morgan gave up a leadoff single to Austin Smith and an RBI double to Corey Seager and looked like he might not make it out of the opening frame. Texas loaded the bases with two outs and Jonah Heim’s liner looked like it was ticketed for centerfield but Jake Cronenworth saved the day, making a terrific diving backhanded catch to end the threat.
With one out in the 2nd inning it was Kyle Hart’s turn on the mound and he was perfect. Hart was just recalled from Triple-A El Paso before the game and did all he could to make a case to avoid being sent back down. The lefty made his retired all 11 Rangers batters he faced, getting through the 5th inning and allowing manager Mike Shildt to turn the ball over top his high-leverage arms.
He even got himself a win in the process. The Padres got on the board against Rangers starter Jack Leiter in the 3rd inning. Fernando Tatis Jr. led off with a walk, stole second base and scored on a single by Luis Arraez to tie it 1-1. San Diego took the lead in the 4th on an RBI double by Tatis Jr., who hit a laser down the left field line to score Trenton Brooks. It would have been a 2-run lead but catcher Martin Maldonado was thrown out at the plate to end the inning.
San Diego got another one in the 6th on a single from Maldonado to score Xander Bogaerts and make it a 3-1 game and padded the lead a little more in the 7th thanks to an RBI single from Cronenworth. That was enough for one of the best relief corps in baseball.
Jeremiah Estrada struck out a pair in the 6th, freshly minted All-Star Jason Adam punched out one in the 7th, Adrian Morejon got a whiff in a scoreless 8th, and Robert Suarez locked up the save with a pair of strikeouts in the 9th.
The Padres bullpen will probably have to do some work on Monday, as well. Darvish is expected to be on a pitch limit in his first few starts coming off the Injured List. Arizona will counter with Zac Gallen on the mound.