Over the course of their eight-game winning streak, the Padres staged all manner of comebacks and dramatic late victories.
But on Friday night at Angel Stadium, they dug too deep a hole against a pitcher who was simply too good. That winning streak would not reach nine.
San Diego dropped its series opener against the Angels, 8-0, overmatched by José Soriano, the hard-throwing right-hander who has started the season as strong as any starter in the Majors.
“The guys kept taking good at-bats,” said Padres manager Craig Stammen. “We took good at-bats against Soriano; he’s just a really good pitcher.”
Rotation questions persist
The knuckleball made its return to a big league mound on Friday night, with Matt Waldron activated to face the Angels. Waldron threw a few gorgeous knucklers -- one to punch out Josh Lowe to end the third, another that had Mike Trout completely fooled.
Otherwise, the highlights were few.
Waldron was hit hard, allowing six runs over 3 2/3 innings. He looked sharp in his brief time in the Cactus League, and made three scoreless starts at Triple-A during his rehab stint. But any optimism leading into Waldron’s outing on Friday was short-lived.
“It looked like he was going to get out of that fourth inning, and he just couldn’t quite get out of it,” Stammen said.
Now come the questions. Right now, the back end of the Padres’ rotation is problematic to say the least. Joe Musgrove and Griffin Canning have been on the injured list all season. Nick Pivetta joined them there earlier this week. (Not to mention Yu Darvish, who won’t pitch this season.)
Waldron was called upon to replace Pivetta, who is facing an indefinite absence with a flexor strain in his right elbow. Waldron did little to mitigate any concerns about that rotation depth.
Nonetheless, help might be on the way. Griffin Canning has made three rehab appearances already. On Friday, manager Craig Stammen noted that Canning was on a progression akin to a full Spring Training. Using that same metaphor, Stammen said Canning was, in theory, built up to mid-March.
It stands to reason, then, that he’s only a couple weeks away from joining the Padres. Could they ever use him.
No Laureano means questions at the top
Ramón Laureano is the Padres' leadoff man. Stammen has declared as much on several occasions recently, and on Thursday night, he cited Laureano’s quality of at-bat both in the leadoff spot and “when I was dumb, putting him lower in the lineup.”
On Friday, Laureano was out of the lineup entirely. Which is harder to quibble with. Stammen has repeatedly cited a desire to keep Laureano fresh and healthy -- a sensible goal considering he’s averaging only about 100 games per season in his full seasons in the big leagues.
Laureano, of course, has thrived at the top. Stammen’s other choices for the top spot have not. With Laureano out on Friday, Jake Cronenworth moved into the top spot. He finished 0-for-4 and is hitting just .138 this season with a .433 OPS.
Cronenworth has spent most of his time in the No. 9 spot lately. Until his bat gets going, that’s probably about where he should stay.
Then again, it’s hard to judge any of these hitters based on their performance against Soriano, whose ERA through five starts sits at 0.28. The Padres did work four walks and chased Soriano before the end of the sixth, marking his shortest start of the season.
“A goal of ours pregame was to get him out as early as we could,” Stammen said. “He pitched great. At that time, the score’s already 8-0 -- tough to hang your hat on that. But the competing that we are showing in the box was pretty good.”
Doing his best K-Rod
On a night with very few bright spots for the Padres, righty reliever Bradgley Rodriguez was certainly one of them. He set down the top of the Angels’ lineup -- Zach Neto, Trout and Nolan Schanuel -- in order in the seventh.
Rodriguez is the Padres’ No. 6 prospect. The way he’s pitching, he won’t keep his prospect status for long. He lowered his early-season ERA to 0.84. He still hasn’t allowed an extra-base hit.
So what was special about this outing? Well, Rodriguez is an undersized right-hander from Venezuela with a big-time fastball. He wears distinct glasses on the mound and rares back exaggeratedly in his windup.
You can probably guess where this is going...
Yes, Rodriguez grew up a big fan of legendary closer Francisco Rodriguez, who starred in Anaheim for years. Making his first appearance on the Angel Stadium mound, B-Rod seemed to be doing his best K-Rod.