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The San Diego Padres and their starting rotation had a recent rough patch where they could not go deep into games, were allowing first inning home runs and found themselves playing from behind more often than not. The recent performances of the Padres pitchers have provided some
optimism and that was only strengthened when Vasquez delivered six shutout innings against the Colorado Rockies, Thursday.
The latest turn through the rotation saw Dylan Cease allow one run over five innings, Yu Darvish allow three runs over 5 2/3 innings, Michael King allow two runs over five innings and Pivetta allow no runs over seven innings. Padres starters, including the start by Vasquez, have thrown 28 2/3 innings and allowed six runs.
This recent run of strong outings from Padres starters actually began with a Vasquez start against the Rockies on Sept. 6 when he completed six innings and allowed three runs. Only Pivetta had reached six innings, prior to Vasquez’s start after being called back up to the big leagues following an injury to Nestor Cortes, which landed him on the IL. Pivetta completed six innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Aug. 24 and then San Diego ran off a string of 8-of-10 games, which included a bullpen game, where a starter did not make it into the fifth inning.
Since that time, the Friar Faithful have seen the return of Michael King, Darvish has more starts under his belt and Vasquez has proven to be a dependable arm. That being said, Gaslamp Ball asked readers to identify what concerned them the most as San Diego approaches the postseason and the overwhelming majority identified starting pitching as the biggest concern. A little more than a quarter of those polled were concerned about the lack of offense and less than five percent were concerned about team health.
It is clear that if the Padres want to reach the postseason and remain in contention for the first World Series title in franchise history, they are going to need the starting pitching to be more consistent and more reliable. The return of King and the continued appearances by Darvish should ensure that happens.
