Archie v Chris Paddack, Lineup & Notes - Gregory to IL, Jason Martin Recalled

Game: It’s a 4:05 first pitch, with the game on AT&T SportsNet and 93.7 The Fan. It’s Faith Night – after the game, Clint and several of the Bucs will relate how their faith has played out personally and in the game.

Lineup: Kevin Newman SS, Bryan Reynolds RF, Starling Marte CF, Josh Bell 1B, Colin Moran 3B, Corey Dickerson LF, Adam Frazier 2B, Jake Stallings C, Chris Archer P. Jake continues to be Archie’s baby-sitter. Gregory has been in deep funk at the dish and was placed on the IL, which begs the question of whether he was activated sooner than he should have been.

Pitchers: RHP Chris Archer (3-6/5.85) takes on RHP Chris Paddack (4-4/3.15). Archie has been a hot mess since late April; he’s gone 3-6/7.33 in that time w/questions raised about pitch selection, plan of attack, and even his thumb injury. We hope he can find the answers soon. He’s worked once, back in 2016, against SD and shut them out over 7-1/3 IP. Paddack is coming off a 10-day minor league demotion, not because of performance issues but for a break, as the Padres are trying to manage the innings the 23-year-old rookie tosses. He’s collected 72K in 65-2/3 IP, but gave up 20 runs (16 earned) over 25 innings in his last five starts, doubling his ERA from 1.55 to 3.15 before the paper move. Pattan has never worked more than 90 pro innings, so we’ll see how the workload jump affects him. He’s never seen Pittsburgh.

Notes:

• OF Jason Martin (.230 BA Indy; .229 BA Pirates) is back as Gregory Polanco was placed on the 10-day IL (retro to June 19th) due to posterior left shoulder inflammation.
• Kevin Newman has a 12-game hitting streak in progress.
• For a pitching duel last night, a lotta balls got tagged. Per Chris Adamski of the Trib, eight of the 11 hardest-hit balls (via exit velocity, according to Statcast) went for outs, and 13 of the 15 balls that traveled the farthest (one left the yard), per Statcast, were just long outs. Some days ball luck and the baseball gods trump metrics…