Randy Vasquez gets the ball for the Padres on Saturday's middle game, carrying a 3.63 ERA and 53 strikeouts over 69.1 innings into Camden Yards. Across from him, rookie right-hander Trey Gibson makes his third career start filling in for Chris Bassitt, who's still working his way back from a back injury. First pitch is 4:05 PM ET. The Padres got here by limping. They dropped 4 straight series and lost 11 of 13 before finally taking 2 of 3 from the Reds at home to stabilize at 35-32. That run included a hard-fought 5-4 win on Tuesday and a 6-2 beatdown earlier in the series. The bigger problem hasn't gone anywhere — San Diego is the lowest-scoring team in MLB, and now they're on the road for the first leg of a 9-game swing. Baltimore was 1 inning away from being swept by Seattle before Jackson Holliday's grand slam keyed a 7-2 win on Wednesday, and then Pete Alonso punctuated a 6-run third in Thursday's 7-5 finale. The O's still sit at 33-37 and the rotation is duct-taped together, but back-to-back wins over a first-place club is a real pulse. Alonso (15 HR, 44 RBI) and Gunnar Henderson (13 HR) are doing the heavy lifting at the plate. Both pitching staffs are working short. The Padres are without Yu Darvish, Joe Musgrove, Nick Pivetta, German Marquez, and Matt Waldron from the rotation — that's a full starting five on the shelf. Baltimore counters with Bassitt, Dean Kremer, Cade Povich, and Zach Eflin all out, which is why Gibson is even getting this start. Add Ryan Mountcastle and Jordan Westburg (Tommy John) to the Orioles' position-player IL and Xander Bogaerts on paternity for San Diego, and both lineups are running thinner than the standings would suggest. The hook here is Manny Machado returning to Camden Yards, the park where he came up, against a Baltimore team that's actually starting to find its footing at home (21-17). Vasquez has been better than his peripherals — his xERA sits over 6.50 — so the Orioles' homer-happy lineup has a path to him. The Padres, meanwhile, have to figure out how to score against a kid they've never seen. Saturday's series opener vibe is mostly about whether either offense can show up on the road for one another.