The San Diego Padres gave Nick Pivetta a surprise start yesterday, and it went better than expected.
The San Diego Padres sent Nick Pivetta to the mound in what was essentially a do-or-die start in the context of saving his season, and Pivetta shocked everyone with five shutout innings against the Washington Nationals as he got the win in the Padres’ 3-2 victory in the series opener.
“I think he exceeded all expectations, maybe including himself also,” said Padres manager Craig Stammen in a piece written by AJ Cassavell of MLB.com. “Very good offense he faced today, and [he looked] like he picked up from where he left off, dominant Nick.”
The “dominant” part of that quote is Stammen being kind and propping up his starter. Pivetta was all over the place at times, and he was on the ropes in the third inning after he gave up a pair of hits. But Pivetta buckled down and got out of the jam, then got six more outs to go deep enough to get the win, which was the surprising part.
Pivetta was also focused given that he was on a pitch count. He wound up throwing 63 pitches, which was right in line with where Stammen said he wanted his starter to be.
“I was in the zone and that’s what I wanted to focus on, because that’s what I had been doing in the minor leagues well,” Pivetta said. “I wasn’t walking a lot of guys, I was getting ahead in counts. [The Nationals] are an aggressive team, a very talented group. They score more runs than everybody in the big leagues, basically.”
Pivetta wasn’t built up all the way yet, and it showed. But the Padres need all the help they can get given where they are in the battle for the wild card, especially since deadline acquisitions Casey Mize and Robbie Ray haven’t lived up to their top billing when they came over.
But Pivetta expressed confidence in how he was feeling and the way he was throwing, and that was what ended up swaying Stammen.
“He personally felt very confident in how he was feeling and how he was throwing the ball,” Stammen said pregame. “I think that probably swayed our decision [to activate him] more than anything. His ability in Triple-A to have a couple of good outings where he looked sharp, passed the eye test, passed the video test. We felt comfortable that this was the spot for him.”
In theory Pivetta could wind up making three more starts, but the Padres remain a work in progress even though it’s September. They need wins, and Stammen has made it clear that any pitcher who doesn’t perform, starter or reliever, is going to get pulled as they try and top the Arizona Diamondbacks and sneak into the playoffs.
