Padres look the part to earn a split vs. Rox
SAN DIEGO — OK, so it took a pair video games. But these Padres are beginning to seem like themselves. Which is to say, these Padres are beginning to seem like the star-studded, full group they’re on paper – the group considered by many as a bona fide World Series contender.
San Diego earned itself a break up of its season-opening four-game sequence in opposition to the Rockies with a 3-1 victory on Sunday afternoon at Petco Park, performed in a crisp two hours, three minutes. Right-hander Seth Lugo was wonderful in his Padres debut, pitching seven innings of one-run ball and requiring solely 93 pitches to take action.
“First look, I don’t know how it could be any better,” Padres supervisor Bob Melvin stated of Lugo, who had spent many of the previous 5 seasons pitching in aid for the Mets.
The 33-year-old Lugo signed with the Padres this winter, partly as a result of they deliberate to provide him a possibility to start out. He’s already profiting from it. Lugo matched a profession excessive along with his seven innings, and Ryan McMahon’s solo homer within the seventh was the one injury in opposition to him.
Otherwise, Lugo allowed simply three singles and was a strike-throwing machine. He threw first-pitch strikes to 21 of the 24 hitters he confronted, together with the primary 15.
“I was challenging them,” Lugo stated. “’Swing at it if you want.’”
Added catcher Austin Nola: “Really, it’s so important to go from 0-1 vs. 1-0. … The difference in that one pitch is the chess match we’re trying to play.”
Lugo, making his first begin since 2020 and the primary April begin of his profession, wasn’t alleged to pitch seven innings, Melvin admitted afterward. But these first-pitch strikes enabled him to be so environment friendly that he earned it.
“It’s just the mindset that he has coming in,” Melvin stated. “He needs to chop down on his pitch depend. Throwing strike one not solely permits you to try this some, however it additionally will get the hitter on the run with the unpredictability.
And was Lugo ever unpredictable on Sunday. Known greatest for his high-spin curveball, he leaned closely on his fastball as a substitute. That wasn’t the plan getting in. But it was working, so he and Nola caught with it.
“It looks like it’s [low],” Nola stated of Lugo’s heater. “He gets so on top of it that it kind of has a little ride on it. And, man, if you’re a hitter and you commit to that, you’re in trouble with the curveball. So you’ve got to pick your poison with what you’re looking for.”
The Padres, in no unsure phrases, are relying on Lugo. They stuffed out the again finish of their rotation with two pitchers who’ve posted notably higher numbers of their careers once they have pitched out of the bullpen — Lugo and fellow righty Nick Martinez.
The Padres consider within the skills of each as beginning pitchers. But it nonetheless qualifies as a threat to entrust two of the six spots in your rotation to pitchers with query marks as starters.
One weekend doesn’t reply all of these questions. But it helps. Both Martinez and Lugo went seven innings of their respective season debuts. Both showcased a deeper array of pitches than what they used as relievers.
“We’ve got a seven-man bullpen,” stated Melvin. “Our starters need to do their thing. They definitely have.”
While Lugo was dealing on Sunday, San Diego scored three runs within the third inning to account for the whole lot of its offense. Trent Grisham launched a solo homer to open the scoring. Two batters later, Xander Bogaerts hit his second two-run homer in as many video games. The Padres’ new shortstop had hits in all 4 video games within the sequence.
From the third inning onward, the Padres mustered just one hit — a bloop behind first base that C.J. Cron misplayed right into a single. But, in a method, it was nonetheless a first-rate instance of the efficiency of this new-look lineup.
“It’s a sense that you can strike quickly,” Melvin stated. “And we did with the 2 house runs. We didn’t get a ton of hits at this time. But that they had an impact and gave us a lead.
“With Seth pitching the way he was, it felt like, even though it was a close game — 3-0 for a while, then 3-1 — that we were in control of it.”
