Down to their final out, San Diego forces rubber match

Harrison has had a *great* start to the season, pitching to a 2.41 ERA across 33 2/3 innings. The young lefty has impressed after being traded from the Boston Red Sox for Caleb Durbin. He’s racked up 41 strikeouts in that time but has a high 1.22 WHIP. The southpaw had two of his rougher outings lately against the Washington Nationals and the New York Yankees, giving up one run and two runs respectively. Those were still great outings, but Harrison showed some issues with command in his most recent start, walking four Yankees batters across as many innings. Canning’s last start was tough. He surrendered six runs to the St. Louis Cardinals in 4 1/3 innings on May 8. But that was all due to a tough-luck fifth inning that forced Canning out of the game. But he had a great debut, pitching five innings of one-run ball. That recent outing is hurting his stats a bit, raising his ERA to 6.75 and his WHIP to 1.61 across 9 1/3 innings. If he can rebound against Milwaukee today, it would be a move in the right direction for Canning’s San Diego tenure.

Batter up!

Skipper Craig Stammen has spent this series in Milwaukee prioritizing offense in his lineup. He’s started Nick Castellanos in right field, meaning Fernando Tatis Jr. plays second base. Miguel Andujar and Gavin Sheets have been in the lineup consistently as well. That is likely to continue.

1. Jackson Merrill, CF
2. Fernando Tatis Jr., 2B
3. Manny Machado, 3B
4. Miguel Andujar, DH
5. Gavin Sheets, 1B
6. Xander Bogaerts, SS
7. Ramón Laureano, LF
8. Nick Castellanos, RF
9. Freddy Fermin, C Bogaerts has been solid lately, and owns a .286 career average against Harrison. The same goes for Tatis whose career average is .444 with a 1.333 OPS. But the real story is Castellanos, who owns a .600 average and 2.000 OPS against the southpaw. His bat could be a major addition to today’s series finale, but he may be out of the lineup instead given how much time he’s spent in right field lately.

Relief corps

Behind King’s great outing, Jeremiah Estrada, Jason Adam and Mason Miller locked down the final three-plus innings. They each pitched scoreless appearances, with Miller pitching his 13th save of the season, regaining the major-league lead. That saved the majority of the ‘pen for today’s series finale, with Ron Marinaccio, Yuki Matsui, Adrian Morejon, Wandy Peralta and Bradgley Rodriguez available. Morejon and Rodriguez are the highest leverage options of the bunch. Should it be a close game when Canning departs, they’ll be the first two out.