San Diego (70-58) looks for the road sweep when they meet Kansas City (51-77) on Sunday afternoon at 2:10pmET.
The Padres are caught in third place in the wild-card standings, just 2.5 games ahead of Milwaukee. The Royals couldn't be in worse shape as they are just hoping to remain out of the cellar in the AL Central. Fortunately, they are 1.5 games ahead of the lowly Detroit Tigers.
Lefty Sean Manaea (7-6, 4.64 ERA) takes on Jonathan Heasley (1-7, 5.21 ERA) for the Royals.
Lefty Sean Manaea beat Washington in his last game last Sunday, allowing just one run in seven innings. But before that, he struggled against the Marlins, giving up three runs in four innings. He also had a terrible outing against the LA Dodgers on Aug. 5, giving up eight runs and 10 hits in four innings in an 8-1 defeat. The burly southpaw has allowed 22 homers in 130 innings and has walked 45 batters with 132 strikeouts.
Wil to the water ?? #TimeToShine pic.twitter.com/Jfe5KjDHS1
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) August 27, 2022
The Padres have a very talented lineup even without star Fernando Tatis Jr, out for the year due to a PED suspension. On Saturday, the Padres edged the Royals 4-3 as they scored two runs in the third and two in the fourth and held on after allowing three runs in the first inning. Will Myers led the way with a two-run homer. Juan Soto added two hits to move his average up to .286. Manny Machado also had two hits and an RBI to improve his average to .292. They need Brando Drury (.207) to start producing. He hit 20 homers and drove in 59 runs, while hitting .274 with the Reds in 350 at-bats.