Julia Boros

This past week, Padres and Dodgers fans all around the world sat down for one of my personal favorite series of the year as the Dodgers and Padres had a three-game series in San Diego. Before we watch the Padres open another set against the Dodgers, this time in Chavez Ravine and facing Shohei Ohtani on the mound, let's look at how San Diego fared against their northern rivals last week. The previous match-up was a three-game series that began with Nick Pivetta on the mound for the Padres and Dustin May pitching for the Dodgers. This game ended in 10 innings, with the Dodgers taking the win, 8-7. Nick Pivetta did not have his best outing, giving up eight hits and four earned runs in four innings. Throughout Pivetta’s career, he has not performed exceptionally well against the Dodgers, except for a fantastic outing in July 2024, when he threw six scoreless innings with eight strikeouts as a Red Sox pitcher. This seemed like a trial run for a likely and hopeful postseason where the Padres would most likely face the Dodgers, but unfortunately, Pivetta did not show out. This was Pivetta’s first start against the Dodgers as a Padre, and he will likely pitch against them again this season. This game not only ended with a Padres loss, but also with a strike call by home plate umpire Mike Estabrook that many, including Manny Machado, saw as a ball. A correct call arguably could have changed the outcome of the game, as Jackson Merrill doubled following Machado’s strikeout. Nonetheless, it unfortunately ended with a one-run loss for San Diego. Game 2 felt like it was a run-producing machine for the Padres, as they won 11-1. They had their ace, Dylan Cease, pitching, who put on a show for all watching, with 11 strikeouts in seven scoreless innings and only three hits allowed. The Padres have had some of the worst-ranked offense in MLB for the past month, but you would have never guessed as they flipped the switch in this game against the reigning world champions. Machado came back from the bad strike call that possibly lost the game for them the day prior with five RBI and three hits. Of course, three-time batting champion Luis Arraez joined in on the runs with three hits of his own. Cease held down the dominant Dodgers lineup, having one of San Diego’s best outings of the season so far. Dylan Cease’s FIP has stayed pretty consistent in relation to last season, staying around 3.10. Now with his no-hitter into the seventh this May, in addition to this start, it shows notable improvement that could even leave him with a FIP below three at the end of the season. The final game of this series, game 3, ended with a Dodgers win, with Teoscar Hernandez’s three-run homer off of Jeremiah Estrada giving Los Angeles the lead in the sixth inning. Randy Vasquez, who started the game for the Padres, performed well against the Dodgers, pitching four innings and striking out four while only giving up one earned run. He will pitch against the Dodgers again on Tuesday night, June 17th. San Diego’s offense was looking rough again, as only four players notched a hit the entire game, and Fernando Tatis Jr. continued his slump as he went 0-3. There can be many reasons for the Padres' lack of offense, but it seems to me that there are too many players in a slump at the same time. As mentioned earlier, the Dodgers and Padres start another series Monday with four games in Los Angeles. The time is now for the Padres to capitalize on the Dodgers' pitching shortage and revive their offense. It is almost crucial for the Padres to split, if not win, this series, as the All-Star Break and trade deadline are just around the corner. With the All-Star Break approaching and signaling the halfway point of this season, if the Padres want to be true competitors with the Dodgers and Giants, they need to get their offense back in check. View full article

The San Diego Padres have a new gem in their starting rotation, and his name is Nick Pivetta. Pivetta signed a four-year, $55 million contract with the Padres this past offseason, and the Padres have not looked back. He is currently San Diego’s best pitcher according to fWAR, and has an impressive ERA of 3.16 (3.05 FIP). Off to the best start of his career, Pivetta continues to experiment with the way he pitches, and it's working for him. After recently introducing a sinker in 2024, he is incorporating it, along with his curveball, into his pitch mix. Pivetta has continued to throw his four-seam fastball at a 0-0 count as the first pitch about half of the time, and batters have definitely caught up to this, as he has given up 12 hits so far this season at a 0-0 count. For reference, the four-seamer is the most commonly thrown pitch in the league due to its velocity and historical effectiveness in missing bats. Although the four-seamer is the most common pitch, few pitchers throw it more often than Pivetta, with Justin Steele and Spencer Strider each using the four-seamer around 58% of the time. It should be noted that Pivetta's four-seamer is ranked ninth in run value, and as such, he continues to make it his signature pitch, often throwing it consecutively. We may see a decrease in Pivetta’s four-seamer in the future, as he is starting to incorporate his cutter more. So far, Pivetta's cutter has consistently found the strike zone like a magnet. This early success is promising, as Pivetta allowed five home runs, 13 hits, and a .394 batting average off 141 cutters thrown in the 2024 season. In this heat map graph from Baseball Savant, Nick Pivetta’s four-seamer usage is shown this year. As visible in the graph, a majority of these pitches are in the top of the strike zone, which is likely one reason Pivetta frequently returns to this pitch. The four-seamer gives batters a very different look than the curveball and sweeper, which both live near the bottom of the zone. Recently, in a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates on May 30th of this year, a specific four-seamer he threw to Ke’Bryan Hayes that struck him out stood out to me. Pivetta’s four-seamer fools Ke’Bryan Hayes in this plate appearance. Even though this pitch was not in the strike zone, and was well out of it, Hayes didn't stand a chance. As shown in this video, Pivetta continues to throw his four-seamer at will and catches players off guard, while somehow keeping it on top of and out of the strike zone. He is not unfamiliar with striking out batters, though, as he already has 76 strikeouts this season and had an impressive 10-strikeout game against the Rockies earlier this season. Pivetta’s heightened success could also be associated with the change of scenery. Being stuck in the same place for too long can often affect one's actions, and in this case, their pitching. Pivetta spent three seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies and five seasons with the Boston Red Sox before this season. Petco Park is one of the most pitcher-friendly ballparks, which may explain part of the large difference between his performance at home games versus on the road. As of now, Pivetta has a 4.32 ERA (4.36 FIP) on the road. However, his home ERA at Petco Park is 1.70, showing a vast difference that has some Padres fans wondering why. This is common among many of the pitchers on the Padres' roster, though, even with someone as acclimated to San Diego as Yu Darvish. However, it is still something worth noting. With Pivetta calling San Diego home for potentially the next four years, with opt-outs after the 2026 and 2027 seasons, we will be able to see if he will continue to excel at Petco Park. With the combination of his ERA already on a downward trend year by year, as well as Petco being one of the most pitcher-friendly parks, I believe he will continue to improve as a Padre and look forward to the rest of the season with him on the mound. View full article