{"id":657053,"date":"2026-04-01T17:21:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T17:21:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/657053\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T17:21:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T17:21:20","slug":"lineup-changes-in-hopes-of-avoiding-a-giants-sweep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/657053\/","title":{"rendered":"Lineup changes in hopes of avoiding a Giants sweep"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Five games into the season, the Padres have yet to score four runs in a single game. Their 12 total runs scored is tied for the second-lowest with a team that has played four games. The team with the fewest runs scored this year has also played just four games. Those 12 runs are last the Padres\u2019 fewest over their first five games of a season since 2014.<\/p>\n<p>So maybe it was time for a change to the lineup and there are several for Wednesday\u2019s 1:10 p.m. finale against the San Francisco Giants.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Wednesday matinee. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/HkmydCxepl\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/HkmydCxepl<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 San Diego Padres (@Padres) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Padres\/status\/2039381531945578688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">April 1, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>First, Fernando Tatis Jr. is leading off for the first time this year against a right-hander. That job had belonged to Jake Cronenworth, who is in the six-hole. Shortstop Xander Bogaerts will bat second as he had against left-handed pitching and Bryce Johnson is receiving his first start of the season, in left field and in the nine-hole.<\/p>\n<p>Ram\u00f3n Laureano is back in the lineup as the designated hitter and No. 5 hitter, the highest spot in the order so far for the Padres\u2019 leader in hits (5), total bases (9) and OPS (1.043).<\/p>\n<p>The only other Padres with an OPS better than .667 is three-hole hitter Jackson Merrill (.744), the only Padre besides Laureano with a home run.<\/p>\n<p>Shoot, the only other Padres with an OPS above .481 are Manny Machado (.667) and Tatis (.644).<\/p>\n<p>Freddy Fermin (.282 OPS) is also back in the lineup for the day-after-night start, while both Nick Castellanos (.481 OPS) and Miguel Andujar (.397 OPS) are on the bench.<\/p>\n<p>Only three Padres remain without hits after Gavin Sheets (.143 OPS) got on the board on Tuesday: Luis Campusano (0-for-5), Ty France (0-for-3) and Johnson (0-for-1).<\/p>\n<p>Here is how the Giants (2-3) will line up as they look for the sweep over the Padres (1-4):<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Today&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SFGiants?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">#SFGiants<\/a> lineup: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/11jBHqm4Mk\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/11jBHqm4Mk<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jeff Sanders (@sdutSanders) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sdutSanders\/status\/2039388635280310388?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">April 1, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Wednesday\u2019s pitching matchup<\/p>\n<p>Giants RHP Adrian Houser (2026 debut)<\/p>\n<p>He went 8-5 with a 3.31 ERA in 125 innings split between the White Sox and Rays. Houser signed a two-year, $22 million deal with the Giants in December. He has a 3.00 ERA in 33 innings against the Padres. His last start against them was in 2023, when he allowed four runs in two innings.<\/p>\n<p>Here is how Houser has fared against current Padres:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-article_inline lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/houser-pads-1.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"9660363\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Padres RHP Nick Pivetta (0-1, 18.00 ERA)<\/p>\n<p>The Padres\u2019 opening day starter allowed six runs on seven hits and three walks in three innings in the loss. Four runs scored in the first inning. Pivetta has a 4.34 ERA in 37\u2153 career innings against the Giants. He made four starts against them last year, going 3-0 with a 3.75 ERA.<\/p>\n<p>Here is how Pivetta has fared against current Giants:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-article_inline lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/pivetta-giants-1.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"9660364\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Five games into the season, the Padres have yet to score four runs in a single game. Their&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":657054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2407],"tags":[5,853,4,43,137,18,4339,4338,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-657053","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego-padres","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-padres","12":"tag-san-diego","13":"tag-san-diego-padres","14":"tag-sandiego","15":"tag-sandiegopadres","16":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116330607977623420","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}