Yu Darvish, Padres renew acquaintances with Giants in big series
The Padres (66-52) will enter the series seven games up on the Giants (59-59) in their duel for second place in the National League West.
San Diego heads into the final 44 games of the season in the second NL wild-card spot. The Giants are four games behind the New York Mets, who currently reside in the third and final postseason position.
The Padres and Giants have seven games remaining, all in the next 11 days. The clubs will meet in San Diego next Monday through Thursday.
In his past two starts, Darvish (1-3, 6.51 ERA) allowed a total of three runs and five hits over 11 innings in San Diego wins over the Mets and Arizona Diamondbacks.
The five-time All-Star right-hander seems to have found a rhythm after a late start to the season due to elbow inflammation. He was shredded for 17 runs in 16 2/3 innings in four starts before turning things around of late.
Just the sight of Darvish on the mound has been uplifting, Padres manager Mike Shildt told reporters last week.
"You got a guy with (204) career professional wins that is out there with that experience (and) there's leadership that takes place on the field, too," Shildt said. "So it's very comforting to see him back."
Darvish was on the injured list when the Padres swept a two-game home series against the Giants in April. The teams since split a four-game series in San Francisco in June.
He has not fared well against the Giants in his career, going 2-3 with a 5.89 ERA in 12 starts.
Webb (10-8, 3.24) pitched in both previous series against the Padres, suffering the loss in a 7-4 defeat at San Diego on April 29 before getting a no-decision following eight shutout innings in a 1-0, 10-inning setback in San Francisco on June 2.
The two-time All-Star right-hander has gone 4-4 with a 2.98 in 16 games, including 15 starts, in his career against San Diego.
Webb will be tasked with lifting the Giants from one of their lowest points of the season, an 8-0 drubbing at the hands of the Washington Nationals on Sunday.
With his team having lost 4-2 to the National League East's last-place club on Saturday, Giants manager Bob Melvin admitted afterward he expected a spirited effort before a big crowd with a chance to win a series and roll into the San Diego showdown.
"That was the most disappointing game we've had all year," Melvin said. "We should have played better than that.
"It's about winning another series here and taking some momentum into the series against the Padres. I thought we were going to play a good game (Sunday). I really did. And, unfortunately, we did not."
--Field Level Media
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
27 minutes ago
- The Independent
Texas is No. 1 in preseason AP Top 25 for first time, edging Penn St, Ohio St; 10 SEC teams ranked
For the first time, Texas will open a college football season ranked No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25. The Longhorns hardly have a mandate in the poll released Monday: They edged out Penn State by just five points in the closest preseason vote since 1998. Texas received 25 first-place votes and 1,552 points to give the Southeastern Conference the preseason No. 1 team for a record fifth straight year. The Nittany Lions got 23 first-place votes and 1,547 points for their highest preseason ranking since they were No. 1 to open the 1997 season. The Longhorns face a major test right away. Their Aug. 30 opener at defending champion and third-ranked Ohio State is a rematch of last season's College Football Playoff semifinal, a 28-14 Buckeyes win in the Cotton Bowl. The Buckeyes received 11 first-place votes from the panel of 65 media members who cover college football. No. 4 Clemson got four first-place votes and No. 5 Georgia got one. Notre Dame, Oregon (which got the final first-place vote), Alabama, LSU and Miami round out the top 10. The SEC leads all conferences with 10 teams in the preseason Top 25, most ever by a conference and one more than a year ago. The SEC has four teams in the top 10 for the second straight year. The Big Ten, which has won the last two national championships, has two of the top three teams in the poll for the third straight year and six in the Top 25 for the third year in a row. Four Big 12 teams are ranked, with defending conference champion Arizona State the highest at No. 11. The Atlantic Coast Conference has three, led by Clemson. Top-ranked Texas 'Arch Mania' is at a fever pitch in Texas with Arch Manning now the undisputed starting quarterback. The Longhorns have been on an upward trajectory since they were 5-7 in 2021, Steve Sarkisian's first season. They have won 25 of their last 30 games and reached two straight CFP semifinals. Last year, they were ranked No. 1 four of five weeks from mid-September to mid-October, and they reached the SEC championship game in their first season in the conference. 'But this is a new year, new faces, new team, and obviously expectations are high for our program,' Sarkisian said at SEC media days. 'I'm not naive to that. I don't put my head in the sand, and expectations are very high. But I also say we're the University of Texas, and the standard is the standard here, and that's competing for championships year in and year out.' Twelve Texas players were taken in the NFL draft, including three-first-round picks, but elite recruiting and additions from the transfer portal should alleviate concerns about losses on the offensive line and at receiver. The defense brings back plenty of talent. Still, Texas received just 38.5% of the first-place votes (25 of 65), the smallest share for a No. 1 team in the preseason poll since Georgia got 33.9% (22 of 65) in 2008. The Longhorns have ended a season No. 1 in the AP poll three times (1963, 1969, 2005) but until now had never started a season higher than No. 2 (1962, 1965, 1970, 2005, 2009). Big Ten lurking The second-ranked Nittany Lions are not only six points from being No. 1, they are 75 points ahead of the Buckeyes in what might be considered a slight to the national champs. Penn State will have Drew Allar back under center for what many consider a light schedule ahead of a late September visit from Oregon before a Nov. 1 showdown at Ohio State. The Buckeyes, in the preseason top five for the ninth straight year and 12th of the last 13, will have a new look with only five starters back on offense and three on defense. 'This team has its own identity,' coach Ryan Day said. 'It wants to have its own identity, but it also wants to be the first Ohio State team to win back-to-back national championships.' The opener against Texas will give the Buckeyes a good measure of themselves. Julian Sayin or Lincoln Kienholz will be the third new starting quarterback in three years. Whoever gets the job will throw to one of the nation's top players in Jeremiah Smith. Day will also have another chance to figure out archrival and preseason No. 14 Michigan, which has beaten the Buckeyes four straight years. Poll nuggets — Texas will try to become the 12th team to start and finish No. 1 since the AP preseason poll debuted in 1950. The last team to do it was Alabama in 2017. — Notre Dame is in the preseason top 10 for the third time in four years. The Fighting Irish will have a new quarterback, CJ Carr or Kenny Minchey. The two played a combined eight snaps last season as Notre Dame went all the way to the CFP title game won by Ohio State. — With Boise State at No. 25, all 12 teams in the 2024 College Football Playoff are ranked in the preseason. The Mountain West's Broncos are the first team from a Group of Five conference to crack the preseason Top 25 since Tulane was No. 24 in 2023. — No. 16 SMU, which returns quarterback Kevin Jennings from its CFP team, is in the preseason Top 25 for the first time in 40 years. The 1985 team was No. 3 and finished 6-5 and unranked. ___
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Barca-Villarreal LaLiga match in Miami moves closer after RFEF approval
MADRID, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Spanish football could finally cross the Atlantic after the Royal Spanish Football Federation approved a request for Barcelona and Villarreal to play their December LaLiga match in Miami – a move nearly a decade in the making. The RFEF board gave the green light on Monday for the teams' matchday 17 game to be played at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami on December 20 in the first step towards the competition playing an official match abroad for the first time in its history. The proposal now heads to European soccer's governing body UEFA before requiring final approval from FIFA – the last hurdle in LaLiga President Javier Tebas' American dream. "At its meeting on 11 August 2025, the RFEF Board of Directors received a request from Villarreal CF and FC Barcelona to play their match on matchday 17 of the first division in the United States," RFEF said in a statement. "... the Royal Spanish Football Federation will submit the request to UEFA to begin the process for subsequent authorisation by FIFA for the match to be played at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami on 20 December 2025 ..." LaLiga has been pursuing their transatlantic vision for almost a decade, emulating the strategy employed by the NFL and NBA to establish themselves in other markets. Tebas' first attempt came in the 2018-19 season with a proposed Girona-Barca match in the U.S. that never materialised. A planned Villarreal-Atletico fixture for 2019-20 also fell through, with the matter ending up in the courts after the RFEF refused authorisation. The courts sided with the Spanish Federation, then under Luis Rubiales, who was sacked in 2023 for kissing team player Jenni Hermoso on the mouth celebrating Spain's women's World Cup victory in Sydney. There was another near-miss last season, with a Barcelona-Atletico match almost proceeding before LaLiga pulled back at the last minute to better structure the project. Now, with regulatory barriers cleared and internal conflicts resolved, the Villarreal-Barca clash appears poised to finally deliver Spanish football's long-awaited American adventure.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
England tour will make me better player
Gloucester lock Arthur Clark said he has come away from England's tour this summer a better player. Clark won his first England cap in their 40-5 victory against the USA in July having been called up to his first national tour which also included Test matches in South 23-year-old said "definitely" when asked if the experience had improved him as a player."I feel like I probably need to put into practice all the stuff I learned," he told BBC Radio Gloucestershire."Being in that environment, being surrounded by people like George Ford, Ben Spencer, Henry Slade, Ben Curry, Charlie Ewels was just special, you naturally take on board their actions and the way they play the game."Yet Clark said the "most interesting" part was being able to talk to Borthwick, who played as a lock during his career for Bath, Saracens and England. "That was probably the most interesting and the best bit on the tour, being able to pick his brains and having meetings with him around the line-out - which was his speciality and hopefully will become mine," he added. Clark described the past 12 months as a "whirlwind" and a "breakthrough" season for him. He made 13 appearances for the Cherry and Whites - 12 of them league starts - played for England A in November in the win against Australia A, and then was called up to the senior squad for the Six Nations, albeit not making it onto the field. He was then one of 10 uncapped players called up to the summer tour and while he did not make the matchday squad of the first two Tests in Argentina, he was called up to start against the USA."I had good feedback throughout the whole campaign, saying I was training well and keep pushing but there's always that doubt in your mind that something isn't' going to go right," Clark said of being told he was starting the final Test."Then we found out the Tuesday morning. Because I was starting with the forwards I was the first row to go up and I sat back in my chair like oh my god, I'm up there. "Heart started beating a bit faster, the nerves started kicking in from there. It was an amazing feeling." 'A special moment for my family' Clark's father, Barry, played for Gloucester during the 1980s and together the family also run a farm in Stow-on-the-Wold. Clark will be the fourth generation of his family to take it on when he retires from sport. Plans then had to be put in place quickly to enable Clark's parents to fly out to Washington DC when they knew he was starting."I had to ping them a quick message Tuesday morning being like book flights, get out here," Clark said."My girlfriend said he [dad] didn't speak while I was running out and he was just on his own. "He's probably the biggest person in my rugby career and my life in general. I'm glad he could have made it out for that trip... it was made that bit more special having him in the changing room after, watching me receive my first cap. A very special moment for me and my family."
