Right-handed rookie Cal Quantrill makes his second major league start for the San Diego Padres on Tuesday night as they host the New York Mets and Noah Syndergaard.
On paper, it looks like a spot start for Quantrill, who was the earliest of the three first-round picks the Padres had in the 2016 draft. But it is not.
His outing Tuesday is part of a plan to give the Padres’ very young — and to this point effective — rotation as much rest between starts as possible.
This is the third time this season that Padres manager Andy Green has used an alternative starter to give each of his five regular starters a fifth day of rest between outing. Green is also using days off in the schedule to serve that purpose.
“We’re tracking it every day,” Green said Monday before the Padres defeated the Mets 4-0 behind rookie Chris Paddack. The right-hander gave up four hits over 7 2/3 shutout innings, striking out 11 and walking one. Paddack lowered his ERA to 1.55 after seven starts.
However, Paddack is less than two years removed from Tommy John surgery, and he will be bumping against an innings limit after the All-Star break. Matt Strahm is less than two seasons removed from knee surgery. Nick Margevicius is a pure rookie while Eric Lauer and Joey Lucchesi are major league sophomores.
None are ticketed for 200 innings. So the “spot” starter becomes the Padres’ sixth man. Right-hander Pedro Avila filled the role on April 11, but he is now on the Double-A Amarillo injured list. Quantrill made his major league debut last Wednesday and limited the Braves to two runs on six hits and a walk over 5 2/3 innings in Atlanta.
Quantrill (0-1, 3.18 ERA) gets the call again Tuesday night against Syndergaard (2-3, 5.02 ERA) before a pair of days off in the next week provide the needed protection.
“They’re all capable of doing what they’ve done,” Green said recently of his starters. “I don’t think we could have been surprised if there was a rough outing or two at the outset. We wouldn’t have based their future capabilities on that.
“How quickly they’ve transitioned, how well they’ve done at the outset, I think we’re really pleased with that.”
After 36 games, Padres starters have a 3.38 ERA and have allowed only 20 homers to rank among the top four staffs in the majors.
Meanwhile, Syndergaard is coming off his best outing of the season. Not only did he throw the second shutout of his career, striking out 10 and walking one in a four-hitter, but he also belted his sixth career homer to give the Mets a 1-0 win against the Cincinnati Reds.
Syndergaard became only the 10th pitcher in major league history to homer for the lone run while tossing a 1-0 shutout.
“Pretty hard to do any more than that, unless you hit two homers in a 2-0 win,” Mets manager Mickey Callaway joked. “He was very good.
Syndergaard will start against the Padres for the fourth time in his career. He is 1-2 against San Diego with a 4.50 ERA, but he is 0-2 with an 8.10 ERA at Petco Park, where he has allowed nine runs on 16 hits in 10 innings.