Padres pregame: ‘Sore’ Austin Nola out of lineup vs. Giants

Padres catcher Austin Nola is out of the lineup Wednesday with soreness in his left thumb and wrist, ailments sustained in the ninth inning of Tuesday night’s 6-5 loss as the Giants’ Brandon Belt slid into his glove hand on a play at the plate.

The ball squirted away as Belt scored what proved to be the game-winning run.

Padres manager Jayce Tingler and a trainer tended to Nola after the play, but the catcher remained in the game. A day later, he will give way to Victor Caratini, who is in line to catch back-to-back games as Yu Darvish is slated to pitch Thursday’s matinee.

“He’s out of the lineup tonight, at least the starting portion,” Tingler said of Nola. “We’ll have to see how everything goes. If the treatment goes well and see how it feels picking up a bat and doing those things. Too early to tell right now.”

Tingler added: “Speaking to him after the game, he was pretty confident it was going to feel well this morning. He felt OK postgame. He was obviously getting ice and treatment on it. Woke up this morning a little bit more tender, sore than what he expected.”

An extended absence would be yet another blow to a team that entered Wednesday with its tragic number shaved to eight — as in any combination of eight Cardinals wins or Padres losses ends San Diego’s slim playoff hopes.

Nola hit his second homer of the season in Tuesday’s loss, extending his hitting streak to five games (9-for-20) and upping his batting line to .272/.340/.376.

Nola played through the final month of the 2020 season with a broken bone in his foot and has twice been on the injured list this year, for a fractured middle finger on his left hand and a left knee sprain.

The switch-hitting Caratini is hitting .217/.300/.310 while playing a career-high 106 games and .182/.207/.218 since the start of August.

Wednesday’s pitching matchup

Giants LHP Scott Kazmir (0-1, 6.43 ERA)

The 37-year-old hadn’t appeared in an MLB game since 2016 before signing with the Giants in February. He had a 4.78 ERA in 52 2/3 innings this year at Triple-A Sacramento.

Padres RHP Vince Velasquez (3-7, 6.09 ERA)

Released by the Phillies earlier this month, Velasquez allowed four runs on four hits and no walks in four innings in taking the loss in his first start for the Padres over the weekend in St. Louis. He is averaging a career-high five walks per nine innings in 2021.

Here is how current Giants have fared in their careers against Velasquez:

The Padres’ Vince Velasquez vs. current Giants

(Baseball-reference.com)