MLB Game Preview - San Diego at Pittsburgh

Sat Jun 22, 2019 4:05 PM EDT

The host Pittsburgh Pirates will be looking to beat the San Diego Padres for the fifth time in a row when the teams play the middle game of a weekend series Saturday.

Pittsburgh, which won the final three games of a four-game series in San Diego last month, took the opener of this series 2-1 on Friday in a tightly contested game decided by an unearned run.

That halted the Padres' overall winning streak at four and gave the Pirates four wins in their past six games.

San Diego rookie right-hander Chris Paddack (4-4, 3.15 ERA) is scheduled to face Pittsburgh righty Chris Archer (3-6, 5.85 ERA) on Saturday.

Archer hasn't found his form consistently since coming off the injured list in mid-May -- he is 2-4 with a 6.93 ERA in seven starts. Extending further back, he has given up 15 homers over his past nine starts.

He didn't get a decision Sunday in Pittsburgh's 5-4 win over Miami when he gave up four runs and seven hits in five innings, with eight strikeouts and three walks.

Archer was pumped up after that, as much because the Pirates had come back to win the game and two of three against the Marlins after a seven-game losing streak as about his performance.

Archer normally would have faced being pulled after a 45-pitch, four-run fourth inning. But Pittsburgh needed to give its beleaguered bullpen as much help as possible, and manager Clint Hurdle wanted to give Archer a chance to end his outing on a better note.

"I didn't want him walking away from the game with that taste in his mouth from the fourth inning," Hurdle said. "The way the game turned out, I think the mindset has been rearranged a little as well. If he doesn't get that fifth inning, we don't use the bullpen the way we wanted to."

Hurdle stopped short of saying Archer's confidence has become fragile, but the Pirates certainly could use the version of Archer who had a 2.74 ERA through his first four starts.

Archer has faced the Padres just once, striking out nine over 7 1/3 innings in a 2-0 win on Aug. 17, 2016, while he was with Tampa Bay.

For Paddack, it's not confidence that has the Padres concerned; it's more about his workload.

He is expected to be recalled Saturday for the start after a stint -- the minimum 10 days -- at Single-A Advanced Lake Elsinore, where he was not used in a game.

"It was 10 days that felt like a month," Paddack, who was in Pittsburgh on Friday, told the San Diego Union-Tribune, but he wasn't upset.

"That's where a lot of people don't understand the business side of baseball. The Padres "are looking out for my future, looking out for my career. I respect they did it now. I was having a little rough patch. I got back to myself. It's good to be back to be part of the guys again."

After turning in a 1.55 ERA over his first seven starts, Paddack had a 5.76 ERA over his most recent five starts.

Paddack, 23, has pitched 65 2/3 innings. That's more than two-thirds as many as he threw last year in the minor leagues, when he had a 2.10 ERA with 120 strikeouts in 90 innings between Single A and Double A as he returned from Tommy John surgery.

--Field Level Media