Major League Baseball

Padres-Rockies preview

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 10:09 p.m. ET

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DENVER -- After getting overpowered by Jon Gray on Saturday night, the San Diego Padres will try to avoid getting swept Sunday in their series with the Colorado Rockies.

Gray set a franchise record with 16 strikeouts, the most ever in a game at Coors Field. The Padres, meanwhile, are dealing with weightier matters than trying to win a ballgame.

After Saturday's 8-0 loss, Padres manager Andy Green announced that Padres third baseman Yangervis Solarte's wife passed away earlier in the day, before game time, due to complications from cancer. Yuliette Solarte was 31.

Yangervis Solarte was scratched from the lineup Friday and left the team to be with his wife and their three daughters in Florida. Solarte has played in 101 games this season, hitting .284 with a career-high 15 home runs. He was sidelined for six weeks in April and May with a hamstring strain missed four games in July to be with his wife.

Solarte has told the Padres he would like to return before the season ends and bring his daughters to the San Diego Padres.

The Padres might have to summon a catcher in the wake of Derek Norris' injury Saturday night. He left the game in the fifth after getting hit with a foul tip and suffering a sprained left middle finger.

Hector Sanchez, who replaced Norris and is expected to start Sunday, is the Padres' only catcher. Green said X-rays were negative on Norris, whose status for coming off the bench remains to be seen. The Padres could recall catcher Austin Hedges from Triple-A El Paso, which clinched the Pacific Coast League title Saturday and will play a Triple-A championship game Tuesday in Memphis.

Jarred Cosart, who missed his last start after suffering a strained right hamstring and groin, which forced him to leave a Sept. 7 outing, will return to the mound for the Padres.

It will be his 12th start overall and eighth for the Padres. Norris, who was acquired from Miami on July 29, is 0-3 with a 5.16 ERA in his 11 games. Cosart has never pitched against the Rockies.

"We're going to stick with what we initially planned and hoped would happen," Green said. "He felt good coming through his throwing sessions. His leg's fine, so we feel good about starting him and we're going to proceed with the rotation as we've layed out after that."

Chad Bettis, who is 12-7 with a 4.78 ERA, will start for the Rockies.

He's 2-1 with a 3.00 ERA in six career starts against the Padres and 2-0 with a 1.50 ERA against them in two starts at Coors Field. This season, Bettis is 1-1 with a 3.32 ERA against the Padres in three starts.

Bettis will be making his second straight start against the Padres. Last Sunday, he gave up four hits and two runs in seven innings but wasn't involved in the decision as the Rockies won 3-2 in 10 innings.

In his past three starts, a stretch that includes a complete-game two-hit shutout against San Francisco on Sept. 5, Bettis is 2-0 with a 1.57 ERA (23 innings, four earned runs) and two walks and 18 strikeouts.

Rockies outfielder David Dahl returned to the lineup Saturday night for the first time in five games and was 2-for-4 with a double and two runs scored.

Rockies manager Walt Weiss said he told Dahl during the last road trip that some signs of fatigue were showing. Dahl was also dealing with left elbow soreness.

"So those are the reasons I gave him a little bit of a break," Weiss said. "He's going to be in there a lot the rest of the way."

Dahl, 22, began the season at Double-A Hartford, moved up to Triple-A Albuquerque and made his major league debut July 27. Dahl's pinch-hit single during the Rockies' game-winning rally in the ninth inning Friday night broke an 0-for-14 slide. His two-hit game Saturday was Dahl's 14th multi-hit game out of the 49 he has played in his career.

He's hitting .316 (56-for-177) with nine doubles, three triples, six homers, 20 RBIs and 37 runs scored. Dahl has a .363 on-base percentage and a .503 slugging percentage.

"He gives you a good at-bat, period, whether it's coming off the bat or in the starting lineup," Weiss said. "We've seen that from the get-go. He's very much under control in the batter's box. He's looked that way the entire time he's been up here."

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