Giants vs. Padres, 9/25: Will the Giants score a run?

It didn’t take very long for the 2010 Giants to wash away the stench of disappointment that stained AT&T Park from 2005-2009 and they don’t need to wait until the next head of baseball operations is named to the position and gets 5-10 years to properly rebuild the organization (seriously, it’s going to take a long, long, long, long, long, long, long time to fix the Giants) to air out the stench of these past two seasons... if. the. Giants. can. just. learn. how. to. beat. the. Padres.

Because if the Giants can get themselves semi-rolling... well... they might be strong enough to make life difficult for the Dodgers. These next two games have to be a proper warm-up for the Giants. It’s not that the season will mean anything in the record books or from a development perspective if they can knock out the Dodgers from playoff contention, but knocking the Dodgers from playoff contention will mean something to these Giants. And, again, as Maria Bamford advises,

Don’t let the Padres kill you, Giants.

Lineups:

Chris Stratton (10-10, 4.37 FIP) gave up five runs in three innings just last week in San Diego. The Padres hit him very hard and he never looked good. Since Ryan Vogelsong “fixed” him, he’s alternated between good/great starts and terrible starts, which means he’s due to have a great one tonight... right?

If this winds up being his final start of the season, you might have to say it was disappointing — a real tale of his first month versus the rest of the season. That’s probably how it goes with a lot of pitchers, though. That first month gives pitchers all the advantage.

Robbie Erlin (4-7, 3.26 FIP) missed all of 2017 with Tommy John so the Padres have slow-played him back into a starter’s role only towards the end of this season. Since he resumed starting, he’s yet to have a scoreless start, throw more than 94 pitches (they usually limit him to right around 85-90), or complete more than 6.1 innings.

He, of course, did beat the Giants last week in San Diego, throwing 81 pitches through 5 innings of 3-run ball. I say “of course” because he’s a left-handed pitcher, and the Giants as a team have an OPS of .663 against left-handed pitching.

This isn’t quite a Bryan Mitchell situation, because Bryan Mitchell has just pitched poorly since the Padres acquired him, but it’s very close in that Robbie Erlin does get to face the Giants.