It's Slade Cecconi's Turn to Step Up for the Diamondbacks

When Slade Cecconi toes the rubber at Petco Park for the Arizona Diamondbacks against the Padres tonight, it will be his 19th major league appearance, 15th as a starter. He's still young, having just turned 25 on June 25th, and only has 84 MLB innings under his belt.

While It may seem unfair to place expectations too high on such a young, inexperienced pitcher, his team is in a pennant race and need him to have a good start to kick off the series. Not only are the D-backs chasing the Padres in the NL Wild Card hunt, moreover their bullpen has been overworked, having thrown 11 innings the last two nights.

Cecconi has a 2-6 record with a 5.81 ERA. By now the story must seem familiar, as it's repeated itself so often this year. The big right-hander has been largely untouchable in the first and second innings, but from there it frequently goes south quickly, and in a big way. See the by-inning splits table below.

It's not clear if it's a conditioning issue or a mechanics issue, or a mechanics issue caused by conditioning. Pitching coach Brent Strom has worked with Cecconi extensively this year and there seemed to be some corrections made when he threw six scoreless innings against the Nationals on June 18th.

But on June 23rd he was able to complete just three innings. He gave up only one run on five hits, but on a hot day in Philadelphia Torey Lovullo pulled him after just 46 pitches. On June 28th Cecconi needed 88 pitches to complete four innings against the A's, giving up three runs on five hits and two walks.

The D-back are going to need more length than that tonight if they are going to make it through the weekend with the bullpen arms intact.

Lineups

The Padres are sending out second year right-hander Randy Vasquez. He's got a 2-4 record with a 4.88 ERA in 11 starts. He faced the D-backs once prior, on June 6th of this year. He was effective, throwing 6.2 innings and allowing just three runs on six hits. Two of those hits were homers however, by Eugenio Suarez and Gabriel Moreno.

Both of those players are in the lineup tonight. Moreno is starting his fourth straight game since coming off the injured list. He had back-to-back three hit games for the first time in his career on Wednesday and Thursday.

Christian Walker is the hottest hitter on the planet at the moment. He just finished an historic series against the Dodgers, smacking five homers in three games. He already had a couple of multi-hit games just prior to that series. Overall Walker has 13 hits in his last 20 at-bats, .650 B.A. with a 2.258 OPS and 11 RBI.

Petco Park has been far less friendly to Walker however, as he has just a career .211 BA with six homers in that stadium.

The Padres are still without Fernando Tatis Jr., Xander Bogaerts, and catcher Luis Campusano, as well as starters Yu Darvish and Joe Musgrove. It hasn't mattered though as they're 7-3 in their last 10 games.

Bullpens

Relievers Justin Martinez and Thyago Vieira are likely unavailable for tonight's game. Martinez worked three dominant innings last night while Vieira has worked two games in a row. Don't forget to check out our feature article on Vieira when done reading this preview.

Humberto Castellanos has not worked since getting called up on June 28th. If Cecconi has a short outing, look for Castellanos to finally get an appearance.

The Padres' closer Robert Suarez, and two primary set-up men, Jeremiah Estrada and Adrian Morejon, have each worked two games in a row. This could be a factor if the Padres have a save situation late in the game.