As he continues to work his way back to full strength after an elbow injury, San Diego Padres' starting pitcher Nick Pivetta showed what he is capable of in the team's Wild Card sweep of the Chicago Cubs.
When first-year San Diego Padres' manager Craig Stammen jotted the names down on his 26-man Opening Day roster back in March, he would have been wise to do so in pencil.
The simple reality is that a major-league baseball season is a 162-game war of attrition with the roster constantly churning. Be it because of injury, trades, elevation of minor-league prospects or under-performance, the roster at the end of September may bear little resemblance to the initial one in March.
For example, the 2026 season saw 49 different players don a Padres' uniform. For every stalwart like right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr., third baseman Manny Machado, center fielder Jackson Merrill and shortstop Xander Bogaerts - who appeared in 159, 158, 158 and 153 games, respectively - there is a catcher Blake Hunt, infielder/outfielder Gage Workman and designated hitter Nick Solak, who appeared in a total of eight games between them.
On the mound, 24 players threw a pitch for San Diego in 2026. In the rotation, only three of those pitchers - Michael King (32), Walker Buehler (32) and Randy Vasquez (23) - made as many as 23 starts. Injuries beset the rest of the rotation with Griffin Canning chipping in 11 starts and German Marquez 10.
The injuries also prompted general manager A.J. Preller to be active at the August trade deadline as he added veteran starters Casey Mize and Robbie Ray in deals with the Detroit Tigers and San Francisco Giants. Mize and Ray made a combined 19 starts down the stretch and Ray has actually been tapped to pitch Game One on Saturday in the NL Divisional Series against the Milwaukee Brewers, while Mize ended the regular season on the IL with an ankle injury.
One of the pitchers who was expected to anchor San Diego's rotation this season was Nick Pivetta. Pitching on Opening Day, Pivetta allowed six earned runs in three innings against the Tigers in an 8-2 loss, but then he appeared to right the ship. He totaled 10 innings with only two earned runs allowed in his next two starts. in the start after that, against the Colorado Rockies on April 12, he opened with three perfect innings with four strikeouts.
But he could not complete the fourth inning. After his third pitch of the frame, he stepped off the mound and signaled for the trainer. Three days later came the diagnosis: a flexor strain in his right elbow that would sideline him indefinitely.
“It’s probably going to be more weeks and maybe months than it is just specific days," Stammen announced at the time. "We feel pretty confident he’s going to get back this year.”
That confidence was rewarded - albeit nearly five full months later - when Pivetta returned to the rotation on Sept. 7.
And he has returned with a vengeance.
In four starts to close out the regular season, Pivetta pitched a total of 18.2 innings and allowed just three earned runs for a 1.45 ERA. Then he got the call to start Game Two of the Padres' Wild Card series against the Chicago Cubs. In 3.1 innings against MLB's highest-scoring lineup, Pivetta allowed three hits and one run while striking out four. That was the foundation of San Diego's 4-1 win that enabled them to complete the sweep of the Cubs.
Pivetta's performance in that game caught the eye of MLB.com writer Jared Greenspan. In a report on Oct. 2 in which he highlighted four "eye-opening" performances from the Wild Card round, he focused on how Pivetta's fastball, which he called "an elite weapon," bewildered the Chicago hitters.
"Pivetta validated the decision [to start Game Two], allowing one run while recording 10 outs against baseball's best offense, bridging the gap to the Padres' vaunted bullpen," Greenspan wrote. "Of note, Cubs hitters went 1-for-10 with three strikeouts against Pivetta's four-seam fastball. The heater induced five whiffs on 16 swings."
Pivetta's four-seamer works, according to Greenspan, not because of elite velocity (it averages just 94.0 mph) but because his 57-degree over-the-top arm angle (the fifth-highest in the game) produces a "rising" effect that causes hitters to consistently swing under the ball.
Though Pivetta has yet to throw a pitch in the sixth inning in any of his nine pre- and post-injury starts this season, he does have a history of working late into games. In fact, Pivetta worked into the sixth inning and beyond in 25 of the 32 starts he made in 2025, finishing with a 13-5 record and career-best (10 or more starts) 2.87 ERA.
That track record of success also provides hope that Pivetta, who would line up to take the mound in Game Three against the Brewers at Petco Park on Oct. 6, can be an integral piece of the pitching puzzle as the Padres continue the drive to win their first World Series title.
