San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
PADDACK’S STRUGGLES CONTINUE
Padres right-hander still searching for answer: Is he tipping his pitches?
Chris Paddack kept his team in the game. It was not enough. It is not enough.
“It’s frustrating,” Paddack said. “I want to go out there and have seven shutout innings every time I grab the ball.”
After an 8-4 loss to the Oakland A’s on Saturday afternoon in a game in which Paddack again struggled in the early innings, manager Jayce Tingler was steadfast in his confidence Paddack will be whom they expected this season.
“I thought he was all right today,” Tingler said. “Maybe unlike the last outing, he didn’t dominate the bottom of the zone. I still thought he made some good pitches … They were off, but not by a lot. I also think he settled in and was pitching stronger, better as it went.”
One issue that has the Padres’ antennae up is that for the third time in four starts, it seemed like
the other team often had an idea what was coming from Paddack.
The Padres suspect the young right-hander is somehow tipping his pitches, as the A’s joined the Mariners and Dodgers in being able to hold back from swinging at a number of good change-ups at the bottom of (or just below) the zone.
“There are a lot of teams that will swing over the top of it,” Tingler said. “… They did a really good job of laying off that pitch today.”
Paddack, ever the proud Texan, was defiant after the game.
“I feel like a lot of people, they’re not on my side right now — fans and that side of the world,” Paddack said. “But hey, I’m just letting ’em know I never left. This game is very difficult. I know that. This is my second year in the big leagues. With the technology these days, with tipping pitches possibly. That’s a good lineup over there. I’m sure they had a good game plan going into today’s game.”
That plan, according to A’s manager Bob Melvin, was this: “Make him work. He’s got a good fastball. He likes to pitch up and down with the fastball and down with the change-up. Guys had pretty good approaches and were pretty aware of what he was going to try to do to them. Made him work. I’ve said often, the first inning is when you can make a starter uncomfortable before he gets into his rhythm. We did exactly that. He’s got good stuff. He’s got a heck of a career in front of him.”
The A’s had a 4-0 lead by the second inning, and the Padres only briefly threatened against Oakland starter Sean Manaea and then mounted a too-little, too-late rally in the final two innings.
The A’s added four runs against Matt Strahm (two) and Luis Patiño (two).
That became particularly haunting.
The Padres scored twice in the eighth inning on Austin Nola’s first home run with the team, Wil Myers’ double and Jake Cronenworth’s single. They added a run in the ninth on Trent Grisham’s single, Fernando Tatis Jr.’s double and a sacrifice fly by Manny Machado.
Certainly, the bullpen bears some blame for letting the game get out of range, even for a club that has 15 comeback victories.
But this one seemed to drift away before that.
“The frustrating part for me has been the first couple innings,” said Paddack, who fell to 3-4 with a 4.75 ERA.
Saturday was just the second time this season he hasn’t completed at least five innings.
Consistently surviving is a dubious achievement, however. Battling is not what an aspiring ace is supposed to spend an abundance of time doing.
The fact the 25-year-old Paddack generally holds off an avalanche, that he can often last in games where his fastball leaks and his change-up occasionally floats (and the other team has a good idea when the two pitches are coming) would seem to demonstrate just how good his stuff is and/or how relentless he is.
But the Padres would prefer to see that ability to grind on a rarer basis.
Paddack’s next start is scheduled for Thursday against the Giants. He’ll have a bullpen session before that to work on whatever is betraying him.
“I’m still going to be Chris Paddack,” he said. “I’m not changing anything. I know what I’m capable of. I’m going to toe the rubber every time I get the ball and go out there and give it my all.”
kevin.acee@sduniontribune.com