MILWAUKEE \u2014 What might have been Matt Waldron\u2019s final game pitching for the Padres got away from him.<\/p>\n
It was an odd yet all too familiar performance.<\/p>\n
On a night in which Waldron threw far fewer knuckleballs than he ever had and was ultimately victimized by his own mental blunder, the Brewers scored six runs during his brief outing and held on for a 6-4 victory.<\/p>\n
The Padres scored twice after falling behind by four and had the potential tying run at the plate in the final two innings. But they could not come all the way back from a five-run fourth inning in which the Brewers took full advantage of some soft contact, a bit of good fortune and Waldron\u2019s gaffe.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought our offense played well enough to win a ballgame tonight,\u201d Waldron said. \u201cI thought our defense played well. I thought I pitched poorly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Waldron threw seven knuckleballs among his 59 pitches. It was the fewest he had ever thrown in any of his 41 major league games, as a starter or reliever.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I just got sped up,\u201d he said. \u201cJust didn\u2019t rely on it. \u2026 It cost me a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Waldron has long battled internally over his identity on the mound \u2014 whether he is a pitcher with a knuckleball or a knuckleball pitcher. Whatever he is going forward, it will likely be in a different uniform.<\/p>\n
It is debatable whether another team will want to give Waldron a chance to figure all that out. But they all will probably have the opportunity in the coming days.<\/p>\n
The Padres are planning to have veteran Lucas Giolito, who they signed last month, make his first start for them this weekend in Seattle.<\/p>\n
Waldron appears to be the odd man out of the rotation.<\/p>\n
And since he is out of options, he cannot be sent to the minor leagues and will likely be designated for assignment. If he is not claimed off waivers by a team who wants to see if they can make him back into the capable starter he was for about half of the 2024 season, the Padres could then assign him to the minor leagues.<\/p>\n
Starting pitching depth is not something a team generally throws away. But the Waldron experiment might have reached its expiration.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s definitely early to talk about that,\u201d manager Craig Stammen said. \u201cWe love Matt. \u2026 He\u2019s an integral part of our roster. So one bad outing doesn\u2019t change a whole lot of how we feel about him.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is true that there wasn\u2019t much Tuesday was going to do to change about Waldron\u2019s situation.<\/p>\n
Since a magnificent midseason run in 2024, during which Waldron posted a 2.76 ERA over 14 starts, he has a 9.67 ERA in his past 12 games (54 innings). That includes a 9.28 ERA in five games this season after taking the injured Nick Pivetta\u2019s rotation spot.<\/p>\n
Officially, he was not even a starter the past two times he pitched.<\/p>\n
Bradgley Rodriguez served as the opener for the Padres again Tuesday.<\/p>\n
As he had last Wednesday in San Francisco, Rodrigue worked a 1-2-3 first inning before Waldron took over in the second.<\/p>\n
Unlike what he did against the Giants six days earlier, allowing a run on two hits in five innings, Waldron was teetering from the beginning on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
A double play helped him out of a second inning in which he threw five strikes in 13 pitches before Joey Ortiz\u2019s home run put the Brewers ahead 1-0 in the third.<\/p>\n
The Padres took a brief lead in the fourth when Nick Castellanos drove in two runs with a two-out single.<\/p>\n
The Brewers\u2019 big inning followed.<\/p>\n
A one-out double began the trouble, and a two-run double drove in the final two runs of the inning. There were three singles, too. One of those was hit at 61 mph through a wide open hole left by an infield shift, and the third single came on a one-out bunt that Waldron fielded and turned as if to try to get the runner going to third base instead of what would have been an easy out at first base. By the time he turned and threw to first, it was too late to get speedy David Hamilton.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just tried to do too much,\u201d Waldron said. \u201cI just, for whatever reason, thought Manny was going to be there. I forgot how fast that guy is. So that should have been one all the way, and it wasn\u2019t. \u2026\u00a0I made a bad play, which would have gotten me out of the inning. That would have saved three runs. So you can say there\u2019s a lot going on, but I have to own this. It\u2019s disappointing, and honestly, it makes me angry.\u201d<\/p>\n
The next batter hit a fly ball to center field that would have been the third out but instead was a sacrifice fly that pushed the Brewers\u2019 lead to 4-2. Brice Turang followed with a two-run double.<\/p>\n
A single by Jackson Chourio, the ninth batter in the inning, ended Waldron\u2019s night and possibly his time with the Padres.<\/p>\n
\u201cSafe to say my ERA and my numbers aren\u2019t too attractive right now,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I have no options, so I mean, yeah, that\u2019s where I\u2019ll leave it. I\u2019m smart enough (to know). But, yeah, I\u2019m one day at a time right now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILWAUKEE \u2014 What might have been Matt Waldron\u2019s final game pitching for the Padres got away from him.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":792626,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,1370,1266,3549,1306,7264,62,7289,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-792625","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-san-diego-padres","15":"tag-sandiego","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-top-stories-sdut","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116565372298618107","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/792626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}