Washington @ San Diego preview
Petco Park
Last Meeting ( Sep 2, 2009 ) Washington 0, San Diego 7
Two of the biggest surprise teams in the National League are about to do battle for the first time this season.
The San Diego Padres have thus far exceeded projections that they would finish last in the West and the Washington Nationals appear nothing like the team that lost more than 100 games in each of the past two seasons.
So instead of being among the worst teams in baseball, the Padres have the best record in the entire National League and the Nationals are sitting at .500 as the two teams open a three-game series tonight in San Diego.
Washington is tied for last place in the NL East despite being 24-24. But the Nationals are just three games behind first-place Philadelphia.
San Diego leads the West by two games over Los Angeles and three over Colorado.
Pitching and speed have been keys to the Padres’ rise, and one of the hurlers doing an outstanding job is today’s starter, left-hander Clayton Richard.
Acquired in the deal that sent Jake Peavy to the Chicago White Sox last summer, Richard has won four consecutive decisions and has a 2.73 earned-run average.
Richard has allowed three runs or fewer in all nine of his starts and hasn’t suffered a defeat since losing to Atlanta on April 14.
Richard won his only career start against Washington, allowing one run and four hits in 6 2/3 innings last September.
As for speed, the Padres lead the majors with 54 steals. Outfielder Will Venable leads the team with 12 while Chase Headley (nine), Tony Gwynn (eight), and Everth Cabrera (seven) are also faring well. The quartet has an 85.7 percent success rate (36-for-42).
Washington’s improvement isn’t as narrowly defined. The Nationals have a slew of position players having solid seasons as they move away from laughingstock status.
Shortstop Cristian Guzman is hitting .336 and catcher Ivan Rodriguez (currently on the disabled list) is batting .325 while providing veteran leadership.
The 3-4-5 hitters of first baseman Adam Dunn (10 homers, 23 RBIs), third baseman Ryan Zimmerman (eight homers, 25 RBIs) and left fielder Josh Willingham (nine homers, 31 RBIs) are all having solid seasons.
Pitching is still a sore spot despite the brilliant start by ace Livan Hernandez (4-3, 2.08 ERA) and probably will continue to remain one with No. 2 starter Scott Olsen (2-2, 3.77) now on the disabled list with a shoulder injury and phenom Stephen Strasburg still at Triple-A.
Today’s starter will be left-hander John Lannan, who hasn’t won since April 10.
Lannan (1-2, 5.55 ERA) has pitched 5 1/3 innings or less in five of nine starts. He has walked 26 batters against just 17 strikeouts.
Lannan is 0-2 with a 3.12 ERA in four career starts against San Diego.