Padres pregame: Profar up top as Friars look to stop season-long losing streak

Domonic Leone threw two shutout innings at the Padres to start nine innings of one-run ball in a bullpen game Monday.

Giants manager Gabe Kapler is going to try to run it back in Wednesday’s 6:45 p.m. start at Oracle Park.

The 29-year-old right-hander will start a second time in the series against a lineup that will look quite a bit different up top.

For starters, Jurickson Profar is leading off for just the sixth time this season and the first time since June 5.

Profar, who will start in right field, was 1-for-3 with a double and a run scored Tuesday. It was his first hit since Sept. 4, a stretch in which he was 0-for-11 with two walks and two strikeouts.

“Just trying to find a spark, get on base and see if we can get something going,” Padres manager Jayce Tingler said.

Fernando Tatis Jr. remains in the two-hole as he was Monday, but Manny Machado will bat third instead of Adam Frazier, who is dropping down to sixth.

With Profar in right field, the Padres will give Wednesday’s start in left field to Tommy Pham, who is 4-for-36 with two extra-base hits over his last 16 games (eight starts).

Trent Grisham remains in center field but is batting eighth.

Grisham is 2-for-29 with no walks and 12 strikeouts in his last seven games, all as the leadoff hitter.

The Padres are hoping to avoid extending their season-worst five-game losing streak. One more defeat would push this skid to their longest since losing six straight on three separate occasions in 2019 (including at the end of that 70-92 season).

Given the current state of the rotation — both Blake Snell and Chris Paddack are hurt and Yu Darvish has been slumping since mid-June — right-hander Joe Musgrove (10-9, 2.93 ERA) is their best bet to snap out of this cold stretch.

At least on the mound, anyway.

He has pitched at least six innings in seven of his last nine starts (2.56 ERA), striking out 61 and holding opposing hitters to a .211/.286/.343 batting line over that stretch.

But Musgrove has allowed nine earned runs in 10 innings in his two starts this year against the Giants, both losses.

Here is how he’s fared in his career against the Giants:

The Padres’ Joe Musgrove vs. current Giants

(Baseball-reference.com)

Here is how the Giants will lineup behind Leone, who is 3-3 with a 1.41 ERA over 44 2/3 innings and will be making his fourth start this year: