PITTSBURGH PIRATES NOTES:
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SAN DIEGO PADRES NOTES:
Blake Snell is quality and Padres homer thrice as they finally defeat the Pirates, 5-1
- The Padres won their 1st game over Pittsburgh this season with their 5-1 victory last night at Petco Park… they saw home runs from Manny Machado (2nd inning), Juan Soto (7th), and Gary Sanchez (8th).
- Starter Blake Snell tossed 6.0 innings of 2-hit, 1-run ball…he walked 5 batters and struck out 4…having walked 7 in his prior start on July 20 @ Toronto, it’s the 1st time in his career he’s walked 5+ batters in consecutive outings.
Padres have 3rd highest attendance in baseball
- Petco Park welcomed 43,448 fans last night for the Padres’ 41st sellout of the season (including the 2 Mexico City home games)…in all of 2023, the Padres rank 3rd in MLB in home attendance at 2,025,055 fans…they’re behind just the Yankess’ 2,232,964 and Dodgers’ 2,263,832.
- In terms of average attendance per game at Petco Park (so not including the 39,244 total fans in Mexico City), the Padres have welcomed 1,985,811 specifically at Petco Park and averaged 41,371 fans per game in downtown San Diego…that average of fans per game also ranks 3rd in baseball, behind the Cardinals’ 42,065 fans per game and Dodgers’ 48,167 fans per game.
Padres rotation leads National League in ERA & quality starts
- SD starters have an NL-best 3.77 ERA, 4th-best in MLB behind the Rays (3.61), Astros (3.74), and Twins (3.77)…their 48 quality starts also lead the NL and are 3rd in MLB behind MIN (52) and SEA (50). Manny Machado having a month, and San Diego batters lead big leagues in extra-base hits in July
- The Padres’ 77 extra-base hits this month headline the Majors, and their 35 home runs hit rank 2nd to just the Dodgers’ 36…they’ve scored the 4th most runs per game of any team this month at 5.70 r/g (scored 4.63 R/G in June and 3.96 r/g in May)…they’ve slugged .471 in July with a .810 OPS.
- Manny Machado’s 11 homers and 25 RBI lead the Majors this month…his 11 HR are just shy of his 12 in
August of 2017 for his most in any calendar month in his career, and his 35 RBI in August of 2017 are
also his most in a month…his .750 SLG this month is currently the highest he’s ever posted in a month
(previous high was .742 in July of 2021), and his current 1.161 OPS is behind just his 1.189 in July 2021.
Josh Hader and Trent Grisham to host BaseBOWL event after today’s game - Following today’s game, fans have the opportunity to join Padres players and alumni for Padres BaseBOWL (hosted by Josh Hader and Trent Grisham), an evening of bowling and fun at East Village Tavern & Bowl…100% of the proceeds will go to the Monarch School.
STARTING PITCHER – #67 SETH LUGO
Lugo set for 2nd career start vs. PIT
33-year old Seth Lugo takes the mound for his 15th start of the season, his 7th at home and the 2nd of his career vs. PIT…his lone start vs. PIT came on June 25, 2018, allowing 3 runs (2 ER) across 5.0 IP in NYM’s 6-4 defeat…he’s also scoreless in 7 of his 10 relief outings vs. PIT (4.97 ERA), with 5 of the 7 ER allowed coming in 1 outing.
Lugo faces DET for first time, leaving Mets as only team yet to pitch against
Lugo posted his 8th quality and earned his 4th winning decision last Fri, July 21 @ DET…he ranks 4th on the club in quality outings, behind Musgrove (10), Snell (10) and Wacha 9…the Tigers were his 29th team to face, and he’s now sqaured off against every ML club except his former squad, the New York Mets.
Limiting the free passes
Lugo has walked 2-or-fewer in 12 of his 14 starts in ’23, including 5 starts with 0 free passes (4/2 vs. COL, 4/27 @ CHC, 6/25 vs. WSH, June 30 @ CIN & July 16 @ PHI)…the 5 starts with 0 walks allowed over 5.0+ IP is T-3rd most among all NL pitchers this season…he ranks in the 91st percentile in BB%, and his 5.1 BB% T-lowest in his career with his 5.1 % in 2019.
Pitch counts
Among all qualifying pitchers from Opening Day through May 3, which were 6 starts for Lugo, his 98.3 pitches per game were T-5th most in the Majors with Zack Wheeler…he threw 84 pitches in a quality outing before tossing just 42 pitches the day he exited his May 16th start with a right calf strain that landed him on the 15-day IL…in his first 2 starts back he tossed 66 pitches on June 20 @ SF then 84 on June 25 vs. WSH…he’s tossed 90+ pitches in all 4 of his starts since June 30, and the 96 pitches per game ranks 14th among all qualifying NL starters since June 30.
Inside the curve
Just like in 2022 (99th percentile), Lugo ranks in 1 of the 2 top percentiles in curveball spin rate (100th), averaging 3,248 rpm, but opponents are hitting .298 against it compared to the .159 clip against it last season…he is averaging 61.2 inches of vertical drop on his curve – which is the 5th-highest vertical drop – and an average of 7.9 inches and 15% more drop – of all ML curveballs.
Lefty vs. righty similarities
Lugo has faced nearly just as many LHH (160) and he has RHH (154) and has almost identical opp. AVG vs. LHH (.268) as he does vs. RHH (.267)…LHH (.463) have a higher SLG than RHH (.377), as 7 of the 9 HR he’s allowed have come vs. LHH.
