Luis

Campusano

The Padres were carrying three catchers since bringing up Elias Díaz, but this gets them back to two. After opening the season as the Padres’ primary catcher, Campusano got hurt in June and wound up taking a backseat to Kyle Higashioka after returning. The demotion comes with him hitting .227/.281/.361 in 299 plate appearances. It’s hard to say whether the Padres are truly down on him for the long haul, but they prefer their veterans right now.

It’ll be Luis Campusano handling the catching duties in his absence. Higashioka should be ready to return in a couple days, if not sooner.

The lack of interest in Díaz was surprising, but he has a shot at going to the postseason now. The Padres might have him replace Luis Campusano after he spends a little time in the minors. Díaz hit .270/.315/.378 for the Rockies before being released earlier this month.

Campusano plated a run in the second inning with a ground out. He then led off the eighth inning with a 415-foot solo shot off of Peter Lambert that extended the Padres’ lead to 8-3. The hard-hitting backstop also drew a walk in the ballgame, reaching base safely in three of his four plate appearances. On the season, he’s now hitting .239/.281/.386 with eight homers and 39 RBI.

Nearly every Padre got in on the fun against Clayton Kershaw in this one. Seven of their nine starters had at least one hit and eight of them reached base safely. Campusano has ceded most of his playing time to Kyle Higashioka lately, as this was just his sixth start in the whole month of July.

It’s understandable that the Padres started hot-hitting Kyle Higashioka over Campusano in three of the previous four games, but they’re using Brett Sullivan over him tonight. It makes one wonder why they brought Campusano back from his rehab stint so quickly, especially since he was just 2-for-15 in four games in A-ball before being activated. He does have one option year left, so if the Padres intend to stay on this path, they might want to send him down to get steady at-bats for a few weeks.

Campusano was activated off the injured list Friday, but this is his first time in the starting lineup since he was reinstated. Kyle Higashioka retreats to the bench with Campusano in the starting nine.

The 25-year-old has been shelved since June 21 due to a left thumb contusion. While he was activated, Campusano is not in the Padres’ starting lineup on Friday night, it’s Kyle Higashioka behind the dish. Eguy Rosario was optioned to Triple-A El Paso in a corresponding move on Friday.

The Padres don’t expect him to miss longer than the minimum time on the injured list, but since he wasn’t going to be ready for at least another couple of days they opted to bring up Brett Sullivan to help them out behind the plate. Expect Sullivan to share the load with Kyle Higashioka while Campusano is sidelined.

Campusano was scratched from the team’s starting lineup on Friday night due to the same issue. It doesn’t sound like he’ll require a trip to the injured list, but may need another day or two before he’s ready to return. Kyle Higashioka will draw another start behind the dish and will bat ninth against Carlos Rodriguez and the Brewers on Saturday evening in San Diego.