Stephen Kolek, who performed well as a starting pitcher in Spring Training, began the year in El Paso as a member of the San Diego Padres Triple-A affiliate. Kolek, like Michael King the year before, was transitioning to a starting role from the bullpen and finally got the call up to make his first MLB start against the Pittsburgh Pirates en route to a 4-0 win at PNC Park, Sunday.
Kolek recorded a strikeout of Oneil Cruz to start the game and retired each of the next two batters on a groundout and fly out to complete the bottom of the first.
Kolek allowed his first hit of the game with one out in the bottom of the second. Ke’Bryan Hayes singled and moved to second on a Tommy Pham single. Kolek found himself with two on and one out and facing his first test as a starter. He got out of the inning by striking out Adam Frazier and picking off Hayes at second base.
Kolek allowed his first walk when Jared Triolo walked to start the bottom of the third. Kolek responded again, inducing a ground out and recording two strikeouts, stranding Triolo at second base.
Kolek gave up a hit to start the fourth inning, but faced the minimum three batters after getting a fly out to center field from Enmanuel Valdez. Kolek got Hayes to bounce into a double play with a ground ball to Xander Bogaerts at short, who threw to Jose Iglesias at second who then threw to Luis Arraez at first base.
Kolek worked the fifth inning and faced four batters to get three outs and completed his day in the sixth inning. After getting a groundout from Cruz to start the inning, Kolek faced the next batter Bryan Reynolds and allowed a walk, which resulted in Padres Manager Mike Shildt replacing him with Jeremiah Estrada.
Estrada allowed a ground rule double to Joey Bart, which put runners at second and third. Kolek, who was no longer in the game was in danger of giving up a run because he was responsible for Reynolds. However Estrada kept Pittsburgh off the scoreboard with strikeouts of Valdez and Hayes to end the inning. Kolek finished his first MLB start without allowing a run. He allowed four hits and two walks and earned his first win as a starter.
Kolek was in line for the win, having completed at least five innings, thanks to four runs scored in the first two innings by San Diego. The Padres continued to hit with two outs and Manny Machado started the scoring rally with a two-out double down the left field line in the top of the first. He came in to score on a Bogaerts single to make the score 1-0. San Diego would go on to load the bases off Pittsburgh starter Andrew Heaney, but the Padres could not add on.
San Diego did add on in the top of the second inning with three runs. Elias Diaz hit his third home run of the year to start the inning to make the score, 2-0. The homer landed in the left field stands just beyond the reach of Pham, who actually had the ball glance off the end of his glove.
Brandon Lockridge followed with a double and moved to third on a one-out single by Arraez. With runners on the corners and two outs, Bogaerts doubled and Lockridge and Arraez scored to put the Padres on top 4-0.
That was all the scoring San Diego and Kolek would need for the Padres to complete their three-game sweep of the Pirates.
San Diego moves on to New York to play the Yankees, Monday at 4:05 p.m.