Padres Bats Fall Silent Against Pirates Rookie Jameson Taillon

The Padres mustered just four hits against Pirates rookie pitcher Jameson Taillon, who is impressing as the Pirates are making a run at the wild card. The Pirates won 4-0.

The Padres mustered just four singles and starter Christian Friedrich allowed 9 hits and 4 runs in his six innings of work. He falls to 4-8 on the season with a 4.84 ERA.

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Taillon was the story Thursday. Making just 10th start of his Major League career, he went 8 innings allowing no runs on three hits, walking two and striking out 4. His season ERA is now at 2.84 and his renewed health couldn’t come at a better time for the Pirates. With the win they are now just two games out of the second wild card.

Ryan Schimpf drew two walks for the Padres, who continues to show good plate discipline with an OPS of .872 alongside his batting average of just .210.

Former Padres draft pick David Freese got two hits off of Friedrich and had high praise for Taillon: “He’s always watching, always talking the game. He wants to be great out there, and it shows.”

Padres Manager Andy Green didn’t have much to say about his teams stale performance, noting “Any game looks flat when you don’t get runners on base. There’s just not much you can do. The game plan today was: He’s got a long arm stroke, if we get some baserunners on, we love to pressure guys on the basepaths. He kept our guys off base, and you don’t get on base, you can’t apply pressure.”

While he has a point, starting average drains like Derek Norris (.191 BA) and Jabari Blash (.196) certainly didn’t help things.

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One note on the game is that Friedrich is now at a career high of innings pitched surpassing his previous high of 84 2/3 in 2012. He will likely be cut short before the year is over to save the left-handers arm for the future. Friedrich noted as much, saying “We’re also looking toward the future, so it’s nice to know that they’re not just going to wear you out to fill up innings,”

It was a disappointing visit for the Padres, losing two out of three with Travis Jankowski‘s steal of home and another Edwin Jackson no-hitter threat being the highlights in Game 2. The Padres now play three against the Mets before three against the Rays and then heading home.