SHILDT SAYS: Discussing Dylan Cease vs. Ranger Suarez; Merrill’s ‘every-day’ status and Cronenworth’s day off

After two straight losses, the Padres find themselves in a classic pitchers’ duel Saturday night at Petco Park — Padres’ right-hander Dylan Cease against Phillies’ left-hander Ranger Suarez. Padres’ manager Mike Shildt started his pre-game media session Saturday talking about Cease and the matchup.

“We go into this game expecting good pitching on both sides,” said Shildt. “Clearly, we love our guy. He’s been tremendous since he’s been here and he’s coming off a really strong outing over in Colorado. Suarez is a gifted pitcher as well. It should be a good ballgame.”

“I was thinking about the Phillies and their lineup today. Clearly, it’s a good lineup. They do have the adaptability of experience … the ability to make adjustments as they are seeing the game. They are hard-hitting as well. Dylan has the weapons he needs to have for his strengths. I think we’ll always error on the side of our pitcher’s strengths against theirs. But Cease also has multiple weapons relative to their strengths. I think he has the ability to combat anything he might see.”

“With Suarez’s stepping up, it always comes back to me that when guys take a tick up it’s consistency. He’s more consistent with all of his pitches. He’s controlling counts. If you look up and take a simple view of something that can be hard and challenging — and you look to see why guys have made improvements — it’s usually a pitching vein somewhat similar to that … consistency.”

Shildt on Jake Cronenworth getting Saturday off against the left-handed Suarez: “He’s been active and getting after it. Tonight, it’s a lefty and we’re playing 13 games in a row. Jake’s been banged up a little bit. It makes sense to get him off his feet and today was a good day for that.”

Shildt then explained why 21-year-old rookie center fielder Jackson Merrill is returning to the lineup Saturday against a tough left-hander after having the past two games off with a minor injury.

“Jackson was champing at the bit yesterday and giving me a bit of the evil eye in a good-natured way,” said Shildt. “He understood why he was getting the second straight day off despite the fact that he loves to compete and play. Again, the most important thing is that he’s healthy and ready to go and compete today.”

“We could have gone a couple different ways tonight and field a lineup with all right-handed hitters. Merrill’s also an every-day player for us. And I’ve been pretty clear about what that looks like. He’s also had success against lefties. He’s had a game-winning hit against a lefty and some other hits against lefties. He’s able to play, he’s an every-day guy … so he goes and plays.”

Shildt also discussed managing the playing schedule of Merrill, who is not that far removed from high school.

“He’s attacked being an every-day player at his age in a couple of ways,” said Shildt. “First of all, the way you most attack being ready to go out and play every day is how you take care of yourself away from the field. What does your preparation look like? I don’t know about the extent of how this is, but it’s also a learning curve from Fernando Tatis Jr., from Manny Machado, from Cronenworth … the guys who have learned how to do that and learning from the experience of their knowledge and the wisdom of how to prepare for playing every day.”

“Less can be more. Make sure you get just ‘X’ number of swings to be ready for the game … just enough. Ultimately, it’s a learning curve. There’s some pro-activeness to it and then there’s just the actual going through it. And then there’s also the communication between myself and Jackson as to when does a day off make sense to Merrill? The good news is that outside of these 13 straight games, we’ve got some built-in off days and that’s already helped Merrill.”