Ross pushed back a day in Padres' rotation

MIAMI -- The Padres have made a slight change to their rotation for their upcoming series in Cleveland.

Left-hander Robbie Erlin will pitch in the series opener Monday, with Tyson Ross -- who was originally to start then -- getting pushed back to Tuesday.

Ross is coming off a start Wednesday against the Dodgers in which he threw 100 pitches in five innings -- 54 in the first two innings. Because Thursday was an off-day, Ross will now go on his sixth day and not his normal fifth day.

"Tyson had those first two innings against the Dodgers -- tough and hard innings -- where he had to work awfully hard," said Padres manager Bud Black. "I think anytime you can give a guy an extra day's rest, especially early in the year, I think it's advantageous."

Ross had a longer throwing session before Saturday's game against the Marlins under the watchful eye of Padres pitching coach Darren Balsley.

"They worked on a couple of things," Black said.

The decision to bump Ross also allowed Black to split the two lefties in his rotation, Erlin and Eric Stults, who will get the start on Wednesday.

"I don't want to say they're similar, but they both do a lot of things that could be comparable. It's a good thing to split them up, with Tyson in the middle," Black said.

The Padres like the idea of having two left-handed pitchers facing the Indians, who have a handful of left-handed hitters, like Jason Kipnis, David Murphy, Nyjer Morgan and Michael Brantley, in addition to several switch-hitters.