The San Diego Padres and New York Mets both entered the season with aspirations of winning their respective National League divisions, but they will have to put that disappointment to the side when they open their NL Wild Card series on Friday night. They played six games against each other this season, with San Diego winning four of those matchups.
San Diego needed to make some changes at the trade deadline in order to compete in the NL this season, and those moves paid off in a big way. The Padres added slugger Juan Soto from Washington and closer Josh Hader from Milwaukee, bolstering their roster heading into the second half of the season. Soto has played plenty of games against the Mets during his career, batting .303 with 16 home runs and 42 RBIs in 68 games against his former NL East foe. He has been even better at Citi Field, posting a 1.173 OPS with 10 home runs and 23 RBIs in New York’s home ballpark. Soto had five home runs and 14 RBIs during Washington’s World Series run in 2019.
Lookin' fly ?? pic.twitter.com/lELkiGLGRn
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) October 6, 2022
All-Star third baseman Manny Machado has been San Diego’s best player this season, racking up 172 hits and 32 home runs at a .298 clip. The Padres have been a mediocre team as far as consistency is concerned, batting at .241, which ranks No. 16 in the majors. They are facing a New York pitching staff that is No. 7 with an ERA of 3.57. Right-handed pitcher Yu Darvish is going to start for San Diego on Friday night. He allowed three runs on eight hits and a walk while striking out six across six innings against the White Sox last Friday. Darvish had won six consecutive starts prior to that outing, but he did extend his streak of quality starts to eight. He has a 3.10 ERA and 0.95 WHIP overall this season. Darvish has conceded two earned runs or fewer in four of his seven postseason starts, and this will be the fourth team that he has made a playoff start for.