Behind Casey Mize, Padres chase series win vs. Reds

The San Diego Padres and host Cincinnati Reds will conclude their three-game series with the decisive contest in a Wednesday matinee.

The Reds rebounded from a 5-0 loss in the series opener on Monday with a 4-3 victory on Tuesday. Cincinnati's Jose Trevino had a go-ahead, RBI single in the eighth inning of the latter game, and Juan Brito drove in what turned out to be the winning run with a sacrifice fly later in the inning.

The Padres (73-66) enter the finale fighting aggressively for position in a crowded National League wild-card race. They have lost six of their past eight games but hold the third and final spot in the league.

Meanwhile, the Reds (66-73) are embracing the role of spoiler. They took two of three games from the Cubs over the weekend in Chicago.

The Padres will send right-hander Casey Mize (5-8, 3.45 ERA) to the mound to make his 22nd start of the season and his sixth since being acquired in a deadline trade deal last month.

Mize has experienced a volatile stretch over his last five starts, a period marked by his high-profile trade from the Detroit Tigers to the Padres. Across these five outings, he has a 1-2 record with a 6.26 ERA, allowing 21 runs (16 earned) in 23 innings.

Mize still is searching for consistency. On Aug. 22, the Minnesota Twins chased him after 2 2/3 innings when he surrendered three home runs. He closed the month last Friday against the Tampa Bay Rays, laboring through five innings while giving up seven runs (two earned) in a 9-4 loss.

Mize tossed three scoreless innings in a no-decision in 2021 in his lone career encounter vs. Cincinnati.

Left-hander Brandon Williamson (2-3, 6.11 ERA) will return to the mound for Cincinnati for the first time since landing on the injured list with left shoulder fatigue in late April.

For Williamson, the last four months have been a grueling journey of rehabilitation, patience and determination.

"Three times a day, I had my shoulder stretched. Once I got my shoulder opened up, I was able to re-strengthen it," Williamson said.

A minor finger injury during a late-June workout temporarily paused his progress, but he persevered to initiate a minor-league rehab assignment by August. Across six rehab appearances spanning Double-A Chattanooga and Triple-A Louisville, Williamson slowly built his endurance and compiled a 5.94 ERA over 16 2/3 innings.

He is 0-1 with a 3.60 ERA in his lone career appearance against San Diego, in 2023.

Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a pair of homers on Tuesday for the Padres.

"Obviously not enough to win a ballgame," Tatis said. "Which is the most important thing right now."

The Reds promoted Brito, a rookie infielder, from Triple-A Louisville before the game.

"The main reasoning was kind of two-fold," manager Terry Francona said. "One, Elly (De La Cruz) is DHing, probably, the next couple of days. Also, with (Eugenio Suarez) down in Miami becoming a citizen, which we fully backed and supported in that, we just didn't want to get caught short. This, hopefully, can give us a little bit of [protection] in case something ever happened. We just want to make sure we don't get caught short."

--Field Level Media