'Frustrating': Paddack's fastball on the fritz

From the first batter he faced on Wednesday night, Padres starter Chris Paddack could not get settled in.

Paddack hit Nationals leadoff batter Alcides Escobar with his seventh pitch of the game and then gave up a single to Trea Turner before allowing an opposite-field, three-run homer by Juan Soto in the Padres’ 15-5 loss at Petco Park.

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“It's pretty frustrating, to be honest,” Paddack said after he allowed a career-high nine runs (eight earned) on nine hits in two-plus innings. “I thought they put together some really good at-bats, especially early on. I think it was another seven-, eight-pitch at-bat to lead off the game. A fastball kind of got away from me, and then it kind of snowballed from there.”

The first-inning struggles for Paddack rolled over into the second inning, even though he set down the first two batters on strikeouts. Paddack allowed back-to-back singles by Escobar and Turner before a bases-loaded single by Josh Bell brought home two runs. Starlin Castro singled home two more.

Paddack relied on his fastball 47% of the time on Wednesday, compared with 61.9% during his previous 15 starts this season, per Statcast.

“I think that was the first time in my career where I was shaking to changeup, some curveballs with runners on,” he said. “I can’t ever lose that edge, especially with my fastball and how elite it is. That's probably the most frustrating part.”

Padres manager Jayce Tingler said Paddack’s fastball control was one of the main issues.

“I thought it started with just the fight, the struggle to get the fastball command,” Tingler said. “We knew once we were behind, we're hoping to be able to find it a little bit and give us some length, but it just never came around tonight.”

Paddack’s night ended after he faced three batters in the third inning, having thrown 75 pitches (47 strikes). The two-plus innings was the shortest Paddack has gone this season and comes after he threw his longest outing of the season -- a seven-inning, three-run effort against the Phillies on Friday.

“I think this one's extra frustrating because we're coming off a pretty good one, where he went deep and really settled into the game,” Tingler said. “We were hoping he was able to build on that one, and so we got to flush this one and get right back to work. So I think the good thing is we've seen some moments where he's had that and he's been very effective.”

Tingler said the inconsistent string of outings from Paddack highlights an overarching issue for the Padres’ rotation.

The starting rotation has an ERA (3.84) and WHIP (1.20) that are good enough to rank in the top 10 in the Majors. But eating up innings has been an issue. Padres starters rank 23rd with 419 innings as a unit.

“If we don't get deeper, we're going to be in a lot of dogfights,” Tingler said. “So to get where we got to get to, [in] the second half, those guys are going to have to go deeper. I mean, that's the bottom line.”