If you stopped watching the San Diego Padres against the Pittsburgh Pirates after Nick Pivetta and Paul Skenes were replaced on the mound, you would wake up today looking to see if the Padres were able to scratch out a run or two against the Pittsburgh bullpen to come back and win the game. They did not, but things got much worse.
Pivetta delivered five innings of well-pitched baseball. He allowed two runs on four hits with one walk and eight strikeouts. It is the type of performance Padres fans should
expect from a frontline starter. It is also the type of performance that those same fans would expect to see their offense produce enough runs to win a game. Against most pitchers that may be the case, but Skenes is not most pitchers. As good as Pivetta was, Skenes was better. The Pittsburgh ace completed 6.1 innings allowing one run on two hits with two walks and six strikeouts. His one mistake – a one-out 2-2 pitch in the top of the seventh inning to Xander Bogaerts that went 383 feet to left field for a solo home run.
The Padres were unable to do much, but the pitching kept the score, 2-1 until the bottom of the eight inning when Adrian Morejon entered the game. On most nights it is a quick 1-2-3 and the San Diego batters are getting ready to tie the game in the top of the ninth. That was not the case on Wednesday. Morejon lasted 1/3 of an inning and allowed five runs, four of which were earned, on five hits with the one out in his appearance coming on a strikeout.
The Padres stepped to the plate in the top of the ninth inning trailing 7-1 and went down in order to end the game with Jackson Merrill and Manny Machado striking out before Bogaerts grounded out to end the game. San Diego will look to win the series in Pittsburgh this morning at 9:35 a.m. PST.
Padres News:
- The Padres pitchers are doing what they can with Joe Musgrove and Yu Darvish not in the rotation. The likes of Walker Buehler and German Marquez are trying fill the back of the rotation roles until reinforcements arrive, resulting in some tough decisions for Stammen and the San Deigo front office. The hope is the offense can start producing that will allow the pitching staff to compete without having to be perfect.
- Stammen stepped in to the role of manager with no managerial experience at the major league level – at any level for that matter. After three-and-two-thirds series in, how would Gaslamp Ball readers grade his performance so far?
- Joe Musgrove is trying to get back to the San Deigo rotation and that cannot come soon enough for a team that needs a boost to kickstart its season.
- Kyle Hart made some adjustments during his time in the San Diego minor league system last season and it appears to be paying dividends at the MLB level this season.
- Dennis Lin of The Athletic put together his first piece since soliciting information rom Padres fans and it would lead anyone to believe he has more to come in future articles.
Baseball News:
- Fans in Los Angeles went to see a baseball game between the Angels and the Atlanta Braves and what they got was a boxing match that resulted in ejections for both sides.
- Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto dominated the Toronto Blue Jays, and the Toronto manager did not stick around to see it.
- Amed Rosario hit two home runs to help the New York Yankees earn yet another win.
- Minnesota Twins pitcher Taj Bradley struck out 10 Detroit Tigers batters and outdueled Tarik Skubal en route to the win.
- The Boston Red Sox sent their ace Garrett Crochet up against the Milwaukee Brewers and their young fireballer Jacob Misiorowski and the veteran propelled the Red Sox to victory.
