The San Diego Padres will try to win a road series against the Atlanta Braves for the fourth straight year when the two clubs complete a four-game series with a doubleheader on Monday.
San Diego has won the first two games of the series, prevailing 3-1 on Friday and 9-1 on Sunday. It took three games during a four-game set with host Atlanta in 2023 after going 2-1 vs. the Braves at their place in each of the previous two seasons.
Monday’s twin bill came as a result of Saturday’s game getting washed out.
Dylan Cease (5-3, 2.45 ERA) can help the Padres secure the series win when he goes up against fellow right-hander Reynaldo Lopez (2-1, 1.34) in the opener of the doubleheader.
San Diego is set to turn to another right-hander, Randy Vasquez (0-2, 6.32), for Game 2. Atlanta is planning to counter with left-hander Chris Sale (6-1, 2.54).
Cease is in line for his 10th start of 2024, and he will be attempting to bounce back from last Tuesday’s loss to the Rockies. Cease was dinged for three runs and five hits in 5 2/3 innings as Colorado won 6-3.
“They put together a lot of good at-bats against Dylan,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said of the Rockies. “They were on every pitch after a while.”
In his only previous appearance — a start — against the Braves, Cease earned a win thanks to five innings of one-run ball on July 16, 2023.
Lopez has turned out to be an outstanding offseason acquisition and has successfully made the transition from reliever to starter. He will be making his eighth start of the year on Monday and has yet to allow more than three runs in an outing.
In his latest start, Lopez settled for a no-decision after giving up two hits across five scoreless innings against the Chicago Cubs last Monday. He had to leave that game early due to back tightness but should be good to go against San Diego.
“He wanted to go back out there but we’re not going to take any chances,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “He was really, really good again, the whole pitch-mix and the ability to throw strikes. He was an inning ahead of his pitch count, so we kept looking at him maybe going to the eighth. We just didn’t want to take any chances.”
Lopez has logged one scoreless inning of relief in his career against the Padres.
Sale has been on a roll, earning the win in each of his past five starts. Over his past two outings, Sale has logged 13 scoreless innings, seven of which came against the Cubs last Tuesday.
In two career starts against San Diego, Sale is 2-0 with a 1.69 ERA.
Snitker said catcher Travis d’Arnaud will be behind the plate when Sale takes the hill. d’Arnaud took a foul ball off the mask on Friday and had to leave the game after feeling dizzy.
Vasquez, who allowed two runs in 3 1/3 innings in the only start of his career against Atlanta, took a loss against Colorado last Monday in his most recent outing. He gave up five runs on eight hits in 3 2/3 innings.
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