Padres' Lucchesi, Rockies' Anderson meet for 3rd time (May 14, 2018)
SAN DIEGO -- There are some things with the baseball schedule that are strange this season.
And one chapter will be played out at Petco Park Monday and Tuesday.
The Padres will be hosting the Colorado Rockies for two games - Monday night at 7:10 p.m. and Tuesday afternoon at 12:40 p.m. Two starts a little more than 12 hours apart seems a bit compact.
But this is also the Rockies second visit to Petco Park this season. And by the time the Rockies depart Lindbergh Field Tuesday night bound for San Francisco, they will have completed 12 of the season's 19 meetings with the Padres.
After Tuesday, the Padres and Rockies will face each other only seven more times -- and those seven games will be played within a two-week span between Aug. 21 and Sept. 2.
The Rockies are 6-4 against the Padres this season. And while the teams have split the pair of three-game series played in the rarified air of Coors Field, the Rockies won three of the four games played at sea level at Petco Park April 2-5.
In fact, Monday night's pitching matchup of the Padres' Joey Lucchesi and Colorado's Tyler Anderson will mark the third time that the left-handers have been paired this season. They faced off April 5 in San Diego and five days later at Coors Field.
Neither pitched in the third series played between the National League West rivals.
The Rockies and Padres are 1-1 in the previous Anderson-Lucchesi matches.
The rookie Lucchesi is 3-2 with a 2.98 earned run in eight starts for the Padres. The 24-year-old is the only member of the Padres rotation with a winning record. He has allowed 16 runs (14 earned) on 37 hits and 14 walks with 46 strikeouts in 42 1/3 innings.
There is a lot of funk to the 6-foot-5 Lucchesi's delivery, which ends with a high leg kick. He has already picked off three runners from first base.
Lucchesi leads all rookie pitchers in ERA and ranks second in innings pitched, strikeouts, opponents' batting average (.222) and opponents' on-base percentage (.239).
Anderson, 28, is 2-1 this season with a 4.23 ERA in eight starts. He has allowed 20 runs (18 earned) on 34 hits and 17 walks with 40 strikeouts in 38 1/3 innings. Opponents are hitting .238 against him.
Anderson doesn't have a decision from his two matches with Lucchesi this season. But he does have a 1.50 earned run average and has given up only two runs to the Padres on 11 hits and two walks with 12 strikeouts in 12 innings.
Anderson is 1-1 with a 1.80 ERA in 30 innings over five starts. He made his major league debut against the Padres on June 12, 2016.
Anderson, who suffered his first loss of the season Wednesday against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, is 1-0 with a 4.22 ERA in five road starts this season. He is 0-1 with a 2.31 ERA in two previous career starts at Petco Park.
Lucchesi has yet to yield an earned run to the Rockies. In his two starts against Anderson, Lucchesi has allowed two unearned runs on five hits and four walks with 15 strikeouts in 11 innings.
