Scott McGough to Open, Tommy Henry to Provide Bulk Innings Vs. Padres

The Diamondbacks pitching staff has been decimated by injuries in 2024 and the wear and tear has caught up with them recently. In their last turn through the rotation the five starters have combined to throw just 19.2 innings and posted a 9.78 ERA.

McGough was optioned to Triple-A Reno after starting out the season with a 6.75 ERA in 15 games, 16 innings. After pitching to a 2.92 in a dozen innings for Reno he was recalled two days ago and threw a scoreless inning in yesterday's blowout loss to San Diego.

Henry made the opening day roster due to the injury to Eduardo Rodriguez. He was not consistently effective however, posting a 5.40 ERA in six starts, 28.1 innings. In six starts for Reno he has a 3.41 ERA in 31.2 innings.

Sunday's game is the last of a stretch of 13 games in 13 days for Arizona. The D-backs are 30-35 overall, but still just 2.0 games out of the 3rd NL Wild Card position. There are six teams in front of them however in the tightly packed National League. Standings.

The Padres climbed back to .500 with yesterdays win, and are in the second Willd Card position with a 34-34 record. Their starter today is rookie Adam Mazur, making his second major league start. In his debut against the Angels June 4th he went six innings and allowed just one run on two hits. He walked four batters and struck out two.

Mazur has a four seam fastball that topped out at 96.2 but averaged 95.2 in that start, meaning he was able to maintain his velocity throughout the start. He also throws a slider, change up and curveball. He was a second round pick by the Padres in 2022 draft out of University of Iowa

Jake Cronenworth, Luis Arraez, and Fernando Tatis Jr. each have five hits in the series. Tatis is on a 14 game hitting streak in which he's batted .421 on 24-57 hitting with four doubles and three homers. Ha-Seong Kim has two homers in the series, as does catcher Kyle Higashioka, who is not in the lineup today. The Padres have outscored the D-backs 26-7, outhit them 38-22 and outhomered them 7-4 in the series.

Ketel Marte went 4-9 with a homer in the first two games of the series. Corbin Carroll is 4-12 with a double and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. is 3-9 with two doubles.

The Diamondbacks bullpen should be mostly caught up and available for this game. Tomorrow is also an off day. If there is a save chance expect Paul Sewald to get in the game. Ryan Thompson, Justin Martinez, Kevin Ginkel and Joe Mantiply have all had a couple of days off.