The San Diego Padres have been one of the hottest teams in baseball over the last month and have lost just four games in April.
The San Diego Padres dropped its first game to the Colorado Rockies 8-3 on Wednesday after winning the first five games of the season series.
Padres center fielder Jackson Merrill got things underway with an RBI single to put San Diego in front 1-0, but it would be all Rockies from that point on. Colorado scored four runs in the second inning and chased right-handed starter Walker Buehler from the game after just 2.2 innings of work.
Buehler gave up four runs on eight hits and three walks while striking out just two batters. He threw a whopping 82 pitches and didn’t give San Diego much of a chance, although the three relievers who came in after him surrendered at least one run.
Rockies righty Tomoyuki Sugano outpitched Buehler, completing 5.2 innings and allowing one run on five hits and one walk while fanning four Padres. After Buehler outpitched Sugano during their first matchup, Colorado’s right-hander won this battle.
The Padres will now turn to right-handed knuckleball specialist Matt Waldron to win the rubber match and the series against Rockies right-hander Ryan Feltner. Waldron missed most of spring training and began the season on the injured list, so this will be his second start since returning.
Waldron didn’t have success in his first outing, pitching 3.2 innings and allowing six hits on eight hits and one walk while striking out four against the Los Angeles Angels. This is an important start for Waldron, who becomes an important piece to San Diego’s puzzle due to the thinness of the starting rotation.
But even with how thin the rotation is, the Padres just added right-hander Lucas Giolito, who will be with the team in the next couple of weeks. If Waldron wants to keep his job, he needs to be better.
Feltner has had two solid outings and two bad outings thus far, with his most recent outing being a good one against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Feltner allowed three runs (two earned) on five hits and one walk while striking out five over 5.2 innings. The 29-year-old is 1-1 with a 6.00 ERA and 1.50 WHIP across 18 innings.
One of Feltner’s bad outings was against these Padres, and he was pulled after four innings after he coughed up six runs on seven hits and three walks with four strikeouts.
The Padres are now tied with the Dodgers for first place in the National League West and sit a half-game behind the Atlanta Braves as the best team in Major League Baseball coming into play on Thursday.
First pitch is at 12:10 p.m. PDT on MLB.TV and regional sports networks.