The San Diego Padres and the Washington Nationals wrap up their three-game weekend series in D.C. on Sunday in the Peacock Game of the Week. The Padres continue their quest for a playoff berth and that elusive World Championship while the Nationals continue to play out the string. On the mound in this brunch baseball battle will be lefty Blake Snell (4-6, 3.96) of the Padres taking on Paolo Espino (0-4, 4.04) of the Nationals. First pitch for this game will be at the special Peacock Sunday time of 12:05pm EST.
The Padres are way off the pace set by the scintillating season that the LA Dodgers are having but they are very much alive for one of the three wildcard spots in the National League. Friday's stunning suspension of all-star Fernando Tatis Jr. for the remainder of this season and the first 32 games of next season had to dampen the spirits of the Padres fandom, but the team has more than enough firepower to overcome his loss. On Friday night, the Padres doubled up the Nationals 10-5 thanks to a 14-hit offensive attack led by Brandon Drury's 3-for-4 performance including his 23rd home run. On Saturday night, after jumping out to a 3-0 lead, the Padres bats went silent and they dropped game two, 4-3 to the Nats. With the game tied at 3 and the bases loaded with one out in the top of the 7th, the Padres failed to score which turned out to be a turning point in the game.
Darvish Day in D.C. pic.twitter.com/ZhdPJsSj6R
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) August 13, 2022
The Padres whirlwind few weeks starting with their massive haul at the trade deadline and then Friday's news of star SS Tatis Jr's suspension has meant the games on the field have taken a backseat to the off the field news. Now, with all that behind them, the Padres can focus on trying to make the playoffs. Since the all-star break, the Padres are 12-9 but have fallen a whopping 16 games behind the Dodgers heading into Saturday night's games. Newcomer Juan Soto is hitting .353 as a Padre with 1 home run and 2 RBI while slugging .588. On the mound in Sunday's finale will be veteran left-hander Blake Snell. Snell has five quality starts in 14 starts this season after returning from injury. Snell has started to return to form in his last five starts. He has an ERA of 2.79 in that time and is 3-1 while averaging 11.5 K/9 in that span.