here<\/a>) from the 8-0 loss to the Angels.<\/p>\nMuch has been made of Waldron having evolved from being a knuckleballer to a pitcher who throws a knuckleball.<\/p>\n
But last night, he still threw his unique offering 38% of the time, pretty much exactly how often he threw it in 2024.<\/p>\n
He used his newly juiced fastballs \u2014 a four-seamer and sinker that are both up about 2 mph from his \u201824 averages to 92.5 mph and 91.9 mph, respectively \u2014 a combined 44% of the time.<\/p>\n
How much he throws which pitches might not be so important as how often he is leaving fastballs in the heart of the strike zone, as he did on three key hits last night.<\/p>\n
\u201cI gotta hit spots,\u201d he said. \u201cMy strength is fastball command. And when that\u2019s leaking a little bit, that\u2019s a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
After something of a breakout season in 2024, during which Waldron had a 14-game span in which he ranked 13th in MLB with a 2.76 ERA, he made one start for the Padres and 18 starts in Triple-A last season.<\/p>\n
Since that run in mid-\u201924, Waldron has allowed at least four runs in six of his seven big-league starts and has a 10.58 ERA over 32\u2153 innings.<\/p>\n
Against the best<\/p>\n
My game story also focused on the Padres continuing to see excellent starting pitchers and not doing great against them.<\/p>\n
Last night, it was Jos\u00e9 Soriano, who lowered his MLB-best ERA to 0.28 with 5\u2154 scoreless innings.<\/p>\n
The Padres\u2019 only victory was that they ran up the pitch count against Soriano, who fell one out shy of becoming the 11th pitcher to turn in a quality start against the Padres through their first 20 games.<\/p>\n
It was the first time in five starts this season Soriano failed to make it through six innings. Still, he became the first pitcher since at least 1900 to go 5-0 over any five-start span while allowing no more than one run and no more than 12 hits.<\/p>\n
The Padres got just two singles against him, but they worked four walks and ran up his pitch count.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe competing that we are showing in the box is pretty good,\u201d Padres manager Craig Stammen said. \u201cThat\u2019ll only benefit us going forward the rest of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n
What they did to get Soriano out of the game is what they have done to a few of the better pitchers they have faced this season.<\/p>\n
And they have faced more than a few.<\/p>\n
Of the 39 qualifying starting pitchers with an ERA below 3.00 as of this morning, six have faced the Padres this season. Four of those pitchers threw quality starts. Together, they have posted a 2.07 ERA against the Padres. (The number was seven before Brandon Webb allowed four runs in six innings yesterday. The number also does not include reigning National League Cy Young winner Paul Skenes, who has allowed just three runs in 17\u2153 innings over his past three starts after having a rough season opener.)<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we want to be the best, we\u2019ve got to figure out a way to beat the best,\u201d Stammen said. \u201cWhen we get to a place where we want to be, what we\u2019re playing this season for, we\u2019re going to face a lot of pitchers like that. So hopefully this is part of the learning curve, and us facing these guys builds perseverance and determination and drive and gives us a better opportunity to tackle these guys when we get the chance when it really means something.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yes, the Padres\u2019 struggles against good pitchers would be more troubling if October was just around the corner.<\/p>\n
And it would be more troubling if the Padres had not managed to win three of those games (and 13 games overall).<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery (starter) from Seattle is f\u2014g great,\u201d Xander Bogaerts said, referring to the fact the Padres just completed a sweep of the Mariners. \u201cJust because we lost to these guys\u2019 ace; Seattle had three aces.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tidbits<\/p>\n
Freddy Fermin was initially slated to catch Waldron, but the Padres decided to give him one more day of rest. Fermin, who has been rattled by at least a half-dozen hard fouls off his facemask this season and was pulled after the most recent of those in Wednesday\u2019s game, is expected to start behind the plate tonight.
\nGavin Sheets\u2019 double in the ninth inning was his ninth of the season, one off the major league lead. He has four doubles in the past three games.
\nTy France has started four of the past five games at first base, and he has hit safely in all of those. Ostensibly the last man to make the opening-day roster after signing a minor-league deal at the start of spring training, France is batting .280\/.333.\/.440 in 27 plate appearances.
\nManny Machado was 1-for-4 last night. He has been on base at least once in 17 of his 19 games and is batting .210\/.363\/.339 on the season.
\nLuis Campusano was 0-for-1, which ended his hitting streak at eight games. But he walked twice and is still working a career-high nine-game on-base streak.
\nThe Padres entered last night\u2019s game with the second-highest hard-hit rate (45.8%) in the majors. Their six hard hits last night were their second-fewest in a game this season.
\nJosh Lowe\u2019s home run in the fifth inning was the first homer surrendered by David Morgan in 18\u2154 innings dating to last season. That also accounted for the first two earned runs he has allowed in eight appearances (11 innings) this season.
\nWandy Peralta worked 1\u2154 scoreless innings. After surrendering two runs and and allowing all five runners he inherited to score over his first five appearances (four innings), Peralta has turned in six scoreless innings over his past five outings.
\nAlek Jacob, who in his only appearance of the season got the win with his two scoreless innings at the end of Wednesday\u2019s 7-6 victory over the Mariners, was optioned yesterday to make room for Waldron.
\nThe Padres are two games worse than they were through 20 games last season. Their 13-7 record is tied for the fifth best 20-game start in team history. They ended up making the playoffs both the previous years they began 13-7 (1996 and 2022).<\/p>\n
All right, that\u2019s it for me.<\/p>\n
I finished yesterday\u2019s newsletter<\/a> about three hours before news of the pending sale broke. It\u2019s time for some sleep.<\/p>\nTalk to you tomorrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Good morning from Anaheim, The biggest news of the day came early yesterday morning. The Padres sale is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":678389,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2407],"tags":[5,853,4,43,137,18,4339,4338,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-678388","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego-padres","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-padres","12":"tag-san-diego","13":"tag-san-diego-padres","14":"tag-sandiego","15":"tag-sandiegopadres","16":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116425969081930538","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}