There’s no shortage of young, exciting arms in baseball. On Wednesday, you can get a chance to watch arguably the most electric of those young arms when MacKenzie Gore and the San Diego Padres travel to Great American Ballpark to take on the Cincinnati Reds in MLB.TV’s Free Game of the Day at 6:40 p.m. ET/3:40 PT.
Gore, ranked as the No. 85 prospect on MLB Pipeline’s Top 100, has done nothing but dazzle through his first two Major League starts. It’ll be the second straight start against the Reds for the 23-year-old North Carolina native. He picked up his first big league win his last time out, scattering four hits and seven strikeouts over five scoreless innings in the Padres’ win.
Despite not having Fernando Tatis Jr., the Padres’ offense has still held its own to start the season, thanks in large part to hot starts from Jurickson Profar (who has a team-leading four home runs and 11 RBIs) and Manny Machado (.339/.423/.565 with 10 RBIs).
If the game gets close, expect to see new closer Taylor Rogers, who has removed the drama from the ninth inning for San Diego by nailing down five of the six save opportunities he’s had this year.
While the Reds had a slow start, reinforcements are beginning to arrive. After getting Tyler Naquin back over the weekend, second baseman Jonathan India was activated from the injured list on Tuesday — a great sign for a team that has already been hit hard by the injury bug. Shortstop Kyle Farmer leads the Reds with seven RBIs, while Naquin is right behind him with six RBIs and a home run. Don’t sleep on India or Joey Votto either, both of whom have some pop in their bat.
Vladimir Gutierrez will be on the bump for Cincinnati. The 26-year-old righty is 0-3 on the year with a 5.54 ERA.