San Diego Padres right-hander Joe Musgrove has been lights out since late May.
The Detroit Tigers have the unenviable task of trying to solve Musgrove when they face the visiting Padres on Sunday in the finale of a three-game series.
Musgrove (9-2, 3.16 ERA) is 8-0 in his last 10 starts. He’s only allowed 12 earned runs during that stretch, spanning 61 1/3 innings — good for an ERA of 1.76.
Musgrove has been very stingy in three July starts. He held the Los Angeles Angels to one run and three hits while striking out 11 on July 4. He then tossed six scoreless innings while striking out seven against the New York Mets on July 9.
In his first post-All-Star break appearance, Musgrove gave up one run and five hits while striking out seven in six innings at Toronto on Tuesday.
San Diego scored two runs in the first, third and fifth innings of a 9-1 victory.
“Any time they give me an early lead, that gives me all the confidence in the world to go out there and really just attack,” Musgrove said.
Musgrove felt some mild adductor discomfort in his most recent outing, but he still threw a season-high 109 pitches.
“We monitored it pretty good,” Musgrove said. “I don’t think it’s going to limit anything.”
Padres manager Bob Melvin is impressed with Musgrove’s perseverance.
“He’s just a tough guy and he knows he needs to be there for his team,” Melvin said.
San Diego has won the first two games of the series in Detroit. Juan Soto hit two homers in Friday’s 5-4 victory.
Soto and Manny Machado drove in three runs apiece in the Padres’ 14-3 victory on Saturday, but Ha-Seong Kim and Luis Campusano also made major contributions. Kim reached base five times from the leadoff spot, including a solo homer. Campusano had four hits, including a three-run homer, drove in four runs and scored three more.
“It’s felt for awhile now that we have to do it with certain guys,” Melvin said. “Winning teams don’t do it with just certain guys, you have to do it up and down the lineup.”
Detroit is expected to turn to right-hander Alex Faedo (1-4, 6.98), who allowed seven runs on six hits in 3 2/3 innings against the Blue Jays on July 7 in his most recent outing.
Faedo will be looking to eat some innings for a Tigers staff that could be laboring.
A rain delay that lasted nearly 90 minutes created havoc for Detroit on Saturday. Tigers manager A.J. Hinch didn’t feel comfortable leaving in his starter, Matt Manning, who pitched two scoreless innings.
Mason Englert replaced him and got pounded. He allowed nine runs and 10 hits in 2 1/3 innings, but the Tigers needed to squeeze as much as they could out of him to keep other arms fresh for Sunday’s game.
“That’s a tough lineup and they feast on mistakes,” Hinch said. “That’s a tough assignment to begin with. The third was tough. The fourth was tough. The fifth was tough.
“Execution is super key against this lineup. They just never relent. Whenever they get that momentum, there’s somebody coming up who can do some damage.”
–Field Level Media
