In long-awaited return to majors, Padres’ Kyle Hart faces Guardians

Consider the bar set pretty high for San Diego Padres left-hander Kyle Hart.

The team’s new fifth starter will take the mound for his first MLB game in five years Monday night when San Diego opens a three-game series against the visiting Cleveland Guardians.

All Hart has to do is follow in the footsteps of a pitching staff that didn’t allow a run in the past 22 innings of a season-opening four-game sweep of the Atlanta Braves. That included a 5-0 shutout in Sunday’s series finale that saw Nick Pivetta and two relievers combine for a one-hitter while facing the minimum of 27 hitters.

“That’s a good team over there,” Padres shortstop Xander Bogaerts said about Atlanta, “but we played great defense and got good pitching.”

Hart will try to keep the good pitching part going after beating out Stephen Kolek for the fifth spot in the rotation. The 32-year old got his second chance in MLB by winning Korean baseball’s version of the Cy Young Award after going 13-3 with a 2.69 ERA last year for the NC Dinos, striking out 182 batters to lead the KBO.

Hart pitched in four games, three of them starts, for Boston in 2020, going 0-1 with a 15.55 ERA in 11 innings and striking out 13. He relies primarily on a slider, four-seam fastball and changeup while also incorporating a sinker and curveball.

“If you pitch well, people will find you anywhere,” he said. “I pitched well enough to be noticed. I learned that I can throw a better slider than I have in the past.”

While Hart tries to maintain the high standards of San Diego’s pitching staff, Cleveland turns to former Pittsburgh Pirates starter Luis Ortiz in the series opener. Ortiz is coming off a decent season in 2024, going 7-6 with a 3.32 ERA in 37 games, 15 of them as a starter.

This will be Ortiz’s fourth career outing against the Padres, all as a starter. He’s 0-1 with a 5.74 ERA in 15 2/3 innings, allowing 13 hits but giving up five homers. He was 0-1 against them last season in two August starts.

The Guardians arrive in town fresh off winning two of three in Kansas City to start the season. That includes a 6-2 win Sunday as Tanner Bibee, who was scratched from his Opening Day start Thursday after coming down with an illness, shut out the Royals for 5 2/3 innings.

Cleveland also might get its offensive leader, third baseman Jose Ramirez, back for Monday night. Ramirez sat out the Sunday game after leaving on Saturday with a sprained wrist but manager Stephen Vogt was encouraged with the medical report.

“He passed all the tests, the imaging was negative,” Vogt said. “He’s just day-to-day, hopefully ready to go (on Monday). We also want to be super cautious with this and make sure it doesn’t turn into something that’s going to linger.”

The Guardians banged out 11 hits with Ramirez on the bench, including three from leadoff man Steven Kwan.

San Diego has won two of three in the teams’ yearly series the past two seasons.

–Field Level Media