On Deck: What to expect during Astros/Padres

The Astros having been flying high in their past few games, riding an eight-game winning streak after consecutive sweeps of the Seattle Mariners and Colorado Rockies. However, that streak will be put to the test as they enter Petco Park to take on arguably the hottest team in baseball in the San Diego Padres, who themselves have come off a four-game sweep of the Texas Rangers that featured four straight games with a grand slam.

Heading into the clash of streaking teams, here are three things I'm looking to see from Houston as they battle the Padres.

Containing 'Nando

Padres' infielder Fernando Tatis Jr. is the unquestioned future face of baseball, but at the rate he's currently playing at, he might assume the position sooner rather than later. So far in 2020, Tatis is averaging .312 at the plate with an OPS of 1.092, sixth best in all of baseball. He also leads the entire league in home runs on the season, blasting 12 bombs through 27 games.

It's not just him, either -- co-stars Manny Machado and Eric Hosmer have been obliterating baseballs all season, making San Diego's top of the order among the most feared and dynamic in all of baseball.

The pitching staff will have their hands full with the Padre hitters this series, but if they hope to come out with a series win or better, containing Tatis should be highest on the list of priorities.

Exploiting the Padre Pen

For as good as the San Diego hitters have been, the opposite could be said for their bullpen. San Diego is in the bottom half of the league in team ERA, at 4.54 collectively. Though they lead the league in save opportunities at 15, they've only successfully converted seven of those chances, leading the league with eight blown saves (Houston is second on that list with seven).

With closer Kirby Yates sidelined with elbow surgery, it's been a scramble to find reliable arms to close out games for San Diego. Drew Pomeranz did an admirable job in place of Yates, earning four saves in the all-star's absence, but he is currently day-to-day with elbow soreness. With Pomeranz's injury, Cal Quantrill is the only healthy pitcher who has earned a save in 2020 for the Padres -- Emilio Pagan, Matt Strahm, Michel Baez, and Craig Stammen have all had a crack at closing games, yet none have managed to earn even one save yet.

Houston is more than aware of this fact heading into the series, and will likely look to work deep into counts to knock pitchers out early and get to the shoddy San Diego bullpen, and keep up their hot hitting.

Who Holds the Hot Corner?

While Alex Bregman got off to a slow start, he seemed to be finally turning a corner in regards to his performances at the plate. His hamstring strain comes at an unfortunate time, and Bregman will be forced to the injured list right when he was beginning to rake.

What will be missed just as much, if not more, is Bregman's glove. A Gold Glover year in and year out, there aren't very many defensive third basemen better than Bregman at third. Currently, he's eighth in all of baseball among third basemen in assists, and has only committed two errors on the season.

His fill-in won't need to replicate him, but merely hold the spot down in his absence. A candidate for the temporary replacement is Yuli Gurriel, who has experience in filling in for Bregman on off-days. Gurriel will sit in game one of the series, however, most likely leaving 3B duties to Abraham Toro, who homered yesterday.

It will be interesting to monitor how things will progress in all three games for the Astros. What might compound the potential issue is who the Astros are starting at pitcher; one rookie (Brandon Bielak), as well as two heavy groundball-reliant pitchers in McCullers and Greinke. Whoever plays third will get plenty of reps during this series, assuredly.