Pitchers' duel expected when Padres host Phillies

Saturday night's matchup between the visiting Philadelphia Phillies and San Diego Padres is likely to be a classic pitchers' duel, based on how the opposing pitchers have fared to start the 2024 season.

Philadelphia left-hander Ranger Suarez and his 25 straight scoreless innings will take the mound against San Diego right-hander Dylan Cease, who's allowed just five hits in winning his past three starts.

Suarez (4-0, 1.36 ERA) has been the best pitcher on arguably the best starting staff in the majors. He shut down the Reds Monday night over seven innings of a 7-0 win in Cincinnati, allowing only two hits with a walk and five strikeouts.

Suarez's current scoreless streak is the longest for a Phillies pitchers since another lefty, Cliff Lee, authored one that lasted 30 2/3 innings from Aug. 17-Sept. 10, 2011. Like Lee, Suarez succeeds more by mixing pitches instead of overpowering hitters.

"I've never had a really good fastball," Suarez said after that game. "So today felt like I've always felt. I tried to mix all my pitches, especially my changeup and curveball. I don't throw hard. So those are things I have to do to get outs."

Suarez enters this game with a 2-0 record in five career outings against the Padres, two of them starts. He owns a 2.65 ERA in 17 innings, which doesn't include a win and save in the 2022 National League Championship Series.

Suarez has some hot bats behind him, too. Philadelphia opened the series Friday night with a 9-3 rout, blasting five homers out of Petco Park. Kyle Schwarber, Bryce Harper, Brandon Marsh, Nick Castellanos and J.T. Realmuto all went deep.

They might not have as easy a time playing home run derby against Cease (3-1, 1.82), who allowed just one baserunner in a 3-1 win Monday night at Colorado. Charlie Blackmon led off the fourth with a double, a sacrifice moved him to third and he scored on a sacrifice fly but that was it.

Cease struck out eight in the dominant performance, throwing only 90 pitches.

"In control was the best way of saying it," San Diego manager Mike Shildt said after Cease's effort. "Everything was coming out clean. It was going where he wanted to throw it. It was filthy. It was just dominant stuff."

The Padres could use another one of those performances after giving up 19 runs in losing the past two games. The bullpen covered 5 1/3 innings in a 10-9 loss at Colorado Thursday, squandering a 9-4 eighth-inning lead, and worked the same number of innings on Friday night.

If there was good news for San Diego Friday night, it was that Manny Machado returned to the lineup after missing all four games of the Colorado series as his wife gave birth to their first child -- a boy -- and that he played third base for the first time this year. Tennis elbow kept him as a designated hitter since the final month of the 2023 season.

Cease will face the Phillies for the first time in his career.