San Diego Padres: Game Preview for Lucchesi’s MLB Debut Tonight

The San Diego Padres have a much-hyped prospect making his MLB debut tonight versus the Milwaukee Brewers. Let’s break down tonight’s matchup.

Joey Lucchesi will make his major-league debut tonight versus Jhoulys Chacin and the Milwaukee Brewers. The San Diego Padres likely didn’t anticipate the 24-year-old’s arrival in MLB so soon, but that time has now apparently come.

After the injury to Dinelson Lamet and Lucchesi’s outstanding spring, the team figured that cutting loose veteran Chris Young, pushing back Tyson Ross, and promoting the young left-hander would be in the best interests of the team. Super Two status be damned!

So as a potentially new chapter of Friars’ baseball begins this evening, let’s take a look at the projected lineup Lucchesi will be facing from the Brew Crew.

Padres vs. Brewers, 7:10 PM PDT, Petco Park, FSSD

Starting for the Brewers tonight is a recent Friar, Jhoulys Chacin. The 30-year-old Venezuelan native pitched to a 3.89 earned-run average in 180.1 innings last season, going 13-10 for the San Diego Padres.

This spring, in 14.2 innings, Chacin had a 1.84 ERA with nine strikeouts and four walks, leading to him being tabbed for the second spot in the Brew Crew’s starting rotation.

We can likely expect to see a similar lineup tonight since Lucchesi, as was Clayton Richard yesterday afternoon, is also a lefty. Obviously, none of Milwaukee’s hitters have any MLB at-bats versus Lucchesi, but this formidable lineup should give him a pretty good test in his first major-league outing.

Expect to see Lorenzo Cain and Christian Yelich both back in the lineup, as well as Orlando Arcia, Ryan Braun, and possibly Hernan Perez instead of Travis Shaw at third, considering Perez is a right-handed hitter and had a decent season last year (.259/.289/.414, 14 homers, 51 RBI in 432 at-bats).

More from Friars on Base

• Padres fighting with hated rival to sign quality veteran relief pitcher
• Jurickson Profar free agency update likely rules out Padres reunion
• Fernando Tatis Jr. may not take to outfield move after Xander Bogaerts addition
• Padres News: Fernando Tatis Jr. trade rumors, Seth Lugo chase, Manny Machado
• Padres barely missed out on high-end veteran starting pitcher

San Diego Padres look to wake up their offense tonight

Apart from Jose Pirela and Freddy Galvis, most of the other San Diego Padres hitters were invisible at the plate yesterday.

Tonight the rest of the gang figures to want to get into the swing of things themselves.

Look for Eric Hosmer, Wil Myers and the rest of the Friars’ lineup to come out first-pitch swinging against the fastball-heavy Chacin.

If they can be patient enough, which we all know the likes of Hosmer, Myers, Headley, and others on this team are, simply waiting out Chacin’s hittable heater should put them in a good position to put their first notch in the win column for 2018.

Next: Padres Are Right to Bring Up Lucchesi

Look for an update to this article later on once each teams’ lineups and batting orders are announced.

Updated 2:33 PM PDT: Tonight’s lineup has been announced, again via AJ Cassavell of MLB.com. Everything remains intact from yesterday’s lineup, except Cory Spangenberg is in for Chase Headley at third base and batting seventh.

Margot CF

Myers RF

Hosmer 1B

Pirela LF

Asuaje 2B

Galvis SS

Spangenberg 3B

Hedges C

Lucchesi P