Eight games into the season, the San Diego Padres have had a Jekyll-and-Hyde run of pitching to their 5-3 start.
In their five wins, the Padres have given up six runs on 24 hits and nine walks with 45 strikeouts in 45 innings — for a 1.20 earned-run average and a 0.733 WHIP.
In their three losses, Padres pitchers have surrendered 21 runs on 36 hits and 10 walks in 27 innings for a 7.00 ERA and a 1.70 WHIP.
With two rookies and two sophomores in a rotation that includes four left-handers, the Padres knew coming in that starting pitching was going to be something of a roller-coaster ride this season.
One rookie pitcher the Padres don’t have concerns about when it comes to an up-and-down season is 23-year-old Chris Paddack, who makes his second major league start Saturday afternoon against the Cardinals’ Michael Wacha at Busch Stadium.
And Paddack will likely have to be excellent Saturday if he is going to have success against Wacha — who has great numbers both against the Padres and at Busch Stadium.
Coming off an injury-interrupted 2018 season, the 6-foot-6, 215-pound Wacha held Milwaukee to one run on four hits and four walks with seven strikeouts in his 2019 debut on Sunday.
“Wacha was fantastic,” Cardinals manager Mike Shildt said in his postgame comments. “You couldn’t ask for a better pitching performance from Michael.”
Unless you went back to Wacha’s previous outings against the Padres. The 27-year-old made one start against the Padres last season and held San Diego to a run on three hits and a walk with five strikeouts in six innings.
In five career starts against the Padres, Wacha has a 3-0 record with a 2.32 earned-run average, a 1.129 WHIP and a .216 opponents’ batting average. He has held the Padres to nine runs (eight earned) on 24 hits and 11 walks with 20 strikeouts in 31 innings.
And the combination of the Padres taking on Wacha at Busch Stadium . . . well, Wacha has a career record of 29-13 in 72 appearances (66 starts) with a 3.54 ERA and a 1.248 WHIP in the Cardinals’ home.
Limited to 15 starts last season because of injuries, Wacha still had an 8-2 record with a 3.20 ERA and a 1.233 WHIP.
“We looked at tomorrow’s matchup and want to get as many right-handed bats as possible against Wacha,” Padres manager Andy Green said Friday. “Right-handers have traditionally more success against him” — which is why switch-hitting backup catcher Francisco Mejia started Friday over right-handed hitting Austin Hedges.
But Green is high on Paddack, who held the Giants to one run on two hits and a walk with seven strikeouts over five innings last Sunday afternoon. Paddack, who didn’t pitch in 2017 after having Tommy John surgery in 2016, had a 2.10 ERA last season between Advanced Single-A and Double-A. He also had 120 strikeouts against eight walks — with better split numbers after advancing to Double-A.
“Paddack stacks up favorably,” Green said of Saturday’s matchup. “It excites us as a club having a young guy like Chris going out there for us. He’s going to continue to evolve.”
