San Diego Padres (78-64) vs. Arizona Diamondbacks (66-75)
The 2022 MLB season goes on with an eight-game Thursday card, including the NL West showdown from Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona. The San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks start a four-game set with Game 16 of their regular-season series, and the Pads shoot for their 12th victory over the D-backs in 2022.
Sean Manaea is expected to take the mound for San Diego. The Diamondbacks, who are listed as home underdogs, will counter with Madison Bumgarner, so we’ll see the battle of the lefties in Arizona.
At the time of writing, the San Diego Padres played the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park in Seattle. They were looking to clinch a two-game interleague set after beating the M’s 2-0 in Tuesday’s opener. The Padres held the final wild-card spot in the National League just a couple of games ahead of the Milwaukee Brewers. San Diego has gone 5-5 in its first ten outings in September, posting a pedestrian 5.76 ERA to go with a poor .205/.294/.363 slash line across 331 at-bats.
Where there's a Wil, there's a way ?? #TimeToShine pic.twitter.com/nAGtbONl4i
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) September 14, 2022
Sean Manaea hasn’t started since September 3 and a hideous outing at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. The 30-year-old left-hander was shellacked for eight earned runs on nine hits across 4.1 frames, and the Dodgers trounced the Padres 12-1. Last Saturday, Manaea pitched the scoreless ninth inning in an 8-4 home loss to the LA Dodgers.
Manaea is now 7-8 with a 5.23 ERA, 1.36 WHIP, and 142/46 K/BB ratio in 25 starts and one relief appearance (139.1 innings pitched) in 2022. He’s been a complete disaster in the second half of the season, racking up an 8.15 ERA and 5.75 FIP through 38.2 innings of work. Over his previous five starts, Sean has allowed a whopping eight home runs while tallying a 7.77 ERA.