San Diego Padres: Mexico City Series ideal opportunity to shine

The San Diego Padres are heading to Mexico City for a two-game series against fellow National League West opponents, the San Francisco Giants. The Padres are expected to have Joe Musgrove and Yu Darvish as their starting pitchers. With strong back-to-back pitching options, the intermittently average Padres will hope that they can start a winning streak that takes them past .500 and stay in touch in the division.

The San Francisco Giants come into the weekend sitting at .440. Despite being at 11-14, the Giants have won five from their last six games, with the St. Louis Cardinals snapping a five-game streak with a 6-0 win on Thursday.

Ex-Padre Sean Manaea, who spent 2022 at Petco Park, is touted to start on Saturday, hoping for his first win of the season. Holding a 6.61 ERA, Manaea has 18 strikeouts with 14 hits and 12 runs in 16.1 innings pitched. The Padres batters will be keen to face Manaea based on his early season form.

After this weekend, the Padres won't see the Giants again until mid-June for a four-game series at Oracle Park.

"“We have an unprecedented appetite for baseball.""

- Horacio De la Vega (LMB president)

There is mass excitement in Mexico for the weekend match-ups. Team Mexico's impressive run, and defeat to eventual winners Japan, in the World Baseball Classic has left the country eager for baseball and the arrival of the Padres and Giants has lit the flame of excitement.

Horacio De la Vega, the president of the Mexican Baseball League (LMB), was quoted by ABC News as saying, “Clearly that outcome of the tournament is giving us a boost, we have packed stadiums in preseason games, while in the past we used to have them at 10-20% capacity,"

Where are the San Diego Padres vs. San Francisco Giants games being played this weekend?

Both games are being held at the Alfredo Harp Helú Stadium in Mexico Stadium. It is the home of Diablos Rojos ("The Red Devils") and holds 20,576 fans at full capacity, according to MLB. The stadium is named after Alfredo Harp Helú, who was disclosed as an investor in the Padres' new ownership group in 2012. The Padres sent a futures team to play Diablos Rojos in 2019 and won the game 11-2, which was held at the Alfredo Harp Helú Stadium.

How do I watch the San Diego Padres-San Francisco Giants games on Saturday and Sunday?

Padres fans can catch the game on Bally Sports San Diego, while NBC Sports Bay Area will carry the Giants broadcast.

First pitch is scheduled for 3:05 p.m. (Pacific time) on Saturday and 1:05 p.m. on Sunday.