San Diego Padres: Rainout and Zach Davies against the Brewers

San Diego Padres fans will have to wait a bit longer to get a glimpse of this year’s squad, but Zach Davies is scheduled to face his former team on Sunday.

The weather forecast leading up to Saturday lived up to expectations and officially put a damper (get it? because wet?) on the San Diego Padres’ first Spring Training game. Cal Quantrill was scheduled to throw two innings, followed by Michel Baez, in what was expected to be the first in several looks at attempting to sort out the fifth starter role.

The lineup that was released looked strong on paper, especially for the first game in the exhibition series:

1. Fernando Tatis Jr. SS
2. Tommy Pham DH
3. Manny Machado 3B
4. Eric Hosmer 1B
5. Francisco Mejia C
6. Jurickson Profar 2B
7. Josh Naylor RF
8. Abraham Almonte CF
9. Franchy Cordero LF

Quantrill is expected to throw a bullpen session anyways and could start on Monday, per AJ Cassavell. Tomorrow, the Padres will hand the ball to Zach Davies, who will be making not only his first start in a Padres uniform – albeit Spring Training – but also against his former team.

Davies came over in the deal that sent both Luis Urias and Eric Lauer to Milwaukee, so I would expect that he’d like to have a strong showing, again, despite it being Spring Training.

The former Brewer had an injury-plagued year in 2018, and that could have been a big reason why he posted a 4.77 ERA in 13 starts. Still, he’s quietly been a reliable starter – and in a hitter-friendly ballpark – posting a combined 3.91 ERA in 111 career starts.

He is one that should greatly benefit from PetCo Park’s reputation of being a pitcher’s park and will officially get Spring Training started on Sunday.