The Padres continue their 6-game road trip as they take on the Cincinnati Reds. The Padres are coming off their first road series win since July 7. On the other hand, the Reds have gone 2-6 in their last 8 games.
The Padres will send southpaw Eric Lauer to the hill for the first of three games. The young left-hander has averaged just over 4 innings per game. Lauer has struggled to get through the fifth inning this year. In his fourth and fifth innings of work, Lauer has given up 29 earned runs this season, compared to 35 in his other innings combined.
The Reds’ will counter with right-handed pitcher Trevor Bauer, who they acquired in a 3-team trade that included the Padres. Since joining the Reds, Bauer has a 7.31 earned run average in 3 starts. The 28-year-old pitcher has seen his strikeouts per 9 innings go up, but so has his walks, homers, and hits per 9 as well.
| Monday, August 19, 2019 4:10 PM PDT |
|---|
| Great American Ballpark - Cincinnati, OH |
| San Diego Padres | ||
|---|---|---|
| LHP Eric Lauer | ||
| 6-8, 4.55 ERA | ||
| 2B | Garcia | .266 |
| LF | Naylor | .248 |
| 3B | Machado | .264 |
| 1B | Hosmer | .290 |
| RF | Renfroe | .237 |
| C | Mejia | .278 |
| CF | Myers | .227 |
| SS | Urias | .194 |
| P | Lauer | .103 |
| Cincinnati Reds | ||
| RHP Trevor Bauer | ||
| 10-9, 4.12 ERA | ||
| CF | Ervin | .331 |
| SS | Iglesias | .295 |
| 3B | Suarez | .258 |
| RF | Aquino | .333 |
| LF | Peraza | .237 |
| 1B | Farmer | .250 |
| 2B | Galvis | .274 |
| C | Barnhart | .231 |
| P | Bauer | .000 |
Greg Garcia gets his first start since August 14. He’ll be play second base, batting leadoff. The Padres are still looking for their leadoff hitter for the remainder of the season. Fernando Tatis Jr. was batting leadoff every game he played in, and now San Diego is without a true leadoff hitter.
Francisco Mejia gets the start behind the plate for pitcher Eric Lauer. Mejia has done well at Great American Ballpark in his 4 games there. With just two starts, Mejia went 3-for-10 with a pair of homers. Cincinnati is where Mejia hit his first two career homers, a multi-homer day against Reds’ starter Luis Castillo.
Rookie power-hitter Aristides Aquino has been the story for Cincinnati. He is the fastest player to ever reach double-digits in home runs (16 games) and currently has 11 home runs in 57 at bats (17 games) this season. Aquino will be batting fourth and playing right field for the Cincinnati Reds in Monday’s series opener.
The Reds are without Joey Votto for the second game this year as he just hit the IL Sunday before their series finale against the Cardinals. Votto is a career .313/.451/.537 hitter against the Padres, and went 2-for-9 (.222) with a solo homer in the first series between the two teams.
