The San Diego Padres sent new acquisition Casey Mize to the mound hoping for big results, but Arizona got them instead.
The San Diego Padres generated some buzz about their starting pitching for the first time in a while, but the addition of right-hander Casey Mize didn’t go well as he submitted the worst start of his career in a 10-4 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks.
There’s no way to sugarcoat how bad Mize was. He put up zeroes in the first two frames, but Arizona scored two in the third and six more in the fourth ot make it 8-0 and turn the game into a laugher for Arizona. Tim Tawa had the lone homer in the third, and the Diamondbacks sent ten hitters to the plate in the fourth.
“Not the first impression I wanted to make for my teammates and for the fans,” Mize said in a followup piece from AJ Cassavell of MLB.com. “Pretty tough time to have the worst start of my career. I just put us in a really tough spot, didn't give us a chance to win. So, frustrated and embarrassed by that.”
Mize did have some ready-made excuses, but he chose not to use them. He hadn’t pitched in 11 days, and for most of that stretch he didn’t know when or where he was going to pitch. He found himself throwing in sporadic bullpens, according to Cassavell, and after that he went through the typical whirlwind travel that comes with being traded.
“I’m not going to make any excuses, man,” he said. “I need to pitch better. We need to win.”
Mize set a dubious record in the process, as he became the first Padres pitcher to allow eigth runs in his team debut since Jhoulys Chacin back in 2017. His ERA rose from a tidy 2.70 to 3.40, and the starter promised to do better next time around.
“It’s pretty frustrating for me,” Mize said. “But I’ll put in a good week’s work and I’ll be better next time.”
The Padres offense started in a deep hole, but the hitters definitely didn’t help. Arizona rookie Mitch Bratt struck out nine and gave up just hit to go with two walks as he threw seven shutout innings.
“For whatever reason, what he was throwing up there wasn’t matching our hitters’ swings and our eyes,” manager Craig Stammen said. “His fastball was getting on us, definitely. It was a lot harder than what the scoreboard said it was.”
The loss put the Padres two games behind Arizona in the standings, and it set up a pivotal series finale for San Diego as they try to get back where the started. They’ll send Walker Buehler to the mound against Kohl Drake to try and get it done.
