San Diego Padres right-hander Nick Pivetta has won his past two starts.
But in between, the Padres went on a four-game losing streak that included getting swept by their NL West rivals—the Los Angeles Dodgers.
That’s what made Pivetta’s gem on Tuesday night so important, as he pitched six innings of 1-run ball to push San Diego back in the win column with a 5-1 victory over the San Francisco Giants at Petco Park.
Pivetta tosses gem
Pivetta’s 25th start of the season began in the worst way possible—by allowing a leadoff home run to Giants center fielder Jung Hoo Lee. But from there, he was lights out.
The Padres ace recorded 10 strikeouts and set a season high with 109 pitches. When Pivetta ended his outing with a strikeout of Christian Koss, he let out a scream as the crowd of 40,624 showered him with applause, as noted by AJ Cassavell of MLB.com.
“He just pitched like Nick pitches, almost regardless,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said, per Cassavell. “He threw a lot of quality strikes. I loved the fact that we get dinged right off the bat … nobody hung their head, especially Nick—the guy on the mound that has the ball. You look up, and that’s the only run he gave up.”
San Diego’s All-Star bullpen then shut the door. The combination of Adrian Morejon, Jason Adam and Robert Suarez each pitched a scoreless inning and the Padres snapped their losing streak.
“This is the blueprint for how it looks,” Shildt said. “This is how we play. … It’s absolutely how we win a lot of games.”
San Diego will try and earn a series victory tonight with another win over the Giants.
