This season, the San Diego Padres have gone into every game hoping to win a series five times. In those games, they are 0–5.
On Wednesday, they will host the Oakland Athletics in an afternoon game, hoping that this will be their sixth time lucky.
The Padres will get another chance courtesy to Kyle Higashioka, after failing to win big against Milwaukee, Arizona, Atlanta, Miami, and Kansas City this season. In front of 41,945 fans, the catcher led off with a home run in the bottom of the ninth inning on Tuesday, leading San Diego to a 4-3 victory.
Higashioka remarked, “Feels good to come through for the team for once.” It’s a little disappointing to give away the lead after gaining it late. We were relieved to win without needing extra innings. The group has proven to be very resilient.”
I think Higashioka is right on that one. 14 games—including the first two in this series—have been won by the Padres after falling behind. Dramatic late-game rallies were not a hallmark of the underachieving squad from the previous season.
However, there was one concerning development for the Padres: left fielder Jurickson Profar was hurt in the eighth inning. His left knee gave way as he swung and missed a pitch, forcing him to leave the game. Although manager Mike Shildt stated that Profar’s knee was sore, he gave no update regarding his status for the game on Wednesday.
San Diego’s right-hander Michael King (5-4, 3.58 ERA) will open the game. He is coming off a five-shutout inning performance against the Diamondbacks on Friday night, where he struck out five and gave up just four hits and a walk in a 10-3 victory.
Against Oakland, King will be starting for the first time in his career. In 2022, he pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings in relief for the New York Yankees against the A’s.
Hogan Harris (0-0, 2.21 ERA), a left-hander, will be the Athletics’ retaliation. In his final appearance, he pitched six scoreless innings on Friday night against the Toronto Blue Jays, a game Oakland won 2-1 thanks to a walk-off home run by JJ Bleday in the bottom of the ninth.
In 91 pitches, Harris struck out three, walked two, and gave up just three hits. It will be his first-ever career meeting with the Padres. Over his last two outings, in his third stay with the A’s this year, Harris has given up only one earned run in 11 2/3 innings.
“My fastball has been playing pretty well,” he stated. “I’ve just realized that I should just use the heater to assault them and see what happens if I fall behind in the count. Sometimes you just have to chase them down rather than attempting to do everything.
“Even the hard-hit balls, it’s still hard to get a hit because there’s eight (defenders) out there.”
There’s a solid explanation why Oakland hitters feel like that figure has increased against them when there are runners on base. The A’s are 4-for-52 with runners in scoring position in their last nine games, having gone 1-for-8 on Tuesday.
The A’s have lost four straight games and have been held below four runs in eight of their last nine games (2–7).
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