Padres look to continue trend against losing teams as they host Pirates

Wednesday's 10-8 home loss to Miami represented a rarity in the 2025 season for the San Diego Padres -- a stumble against a losing team.

San Diego's 31-23 record at the one-third mark of the year is built largely on dominating sub-.500 teams. It's 20-8 when playing squads south of break-even and 11-15 against opposition over .500.

The Padres will try to pick on another team with a losing record on Friday night when they open a three-game home series with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

It appeared that San Diego might sweep the Marlins when it took a 6-1 lead in the fourth inning. Even after blowing that advantage, the Padres rallied for an 8-7 edge in the seventh on Gavin Sheets' two-run homer before a heavily taxed bullpen gave it up for good in the eighth.

"It's one that we wanted," said Sheets. "We let that one get away from us."

Sheets did his part to get the Padres into the win column. He started the scoring with an RBI single in the second and is on pace for a career-best year. The former Chicago White Sox slugger is hitting .275 with 11 homers and a team-high 34 RBI to go along with an impressive .833 OPS.

Sheets has never hit better than .250 in a season and his career high in homers was 15, set during his second year in the league in 2022.

"Obviously, I've made adjustments that have really helped and kind of clicked," he said.

So has San Diego's Friday night starter, Nick Pivetta. He owns a 5-2 record and 2.72 ERA in 10 starts after a good outing on May 23 in Atlanta, where he allowed just one run in six innings of his team's 2-1 victory. Pivetta is 1-1 with a 1.96 ERA in five career outings -- four of them starts -- against Pittsburgh.

As for the Pirates, they'll counter with right-hander Mitch Keller (1-6, 3.66 ERA). He last worked on Saturday in his team's 2-1 win over Milwaukee, scattering seven hits over six innings while allowing just one run and fanning seven. Keller is 2-4 with a 6.10 ERA in six career starts against the Padres.

Pittsburgh is coming off its second road series win of the year, routing Arizona 10-1 on Wednesday behind an 11-hit attack and the usual good outing by Paul Skenes. He fired 6 2/3 scoreless innings, yielding just four hits and whiffing seven.

The Pirates' offense has shown signs of life after going 26 straight games without scoring more than four runs. They are averaging 5.3 runs in the last seven games, getting to double figures Wednesday for just the second time this year.

"We have a good core," Skenes said. "We have a good opportunity to do something in Pittsburgh. We saw it last year, for a good part of the year. Just gotta keep going."

Bryan Reynolds is hitting just .222 on the year but is 14-of-41 in his last 11 games with 11 RBI, giving him a team-high 31.

San Diego swept the Pirates in early May in Pittsburgh and has won nine straight meetings between the teams.