San Diego Padres’ Joey Lucchesi Reminds Me of Someone Pretty Good

The San Diego Padres got another encouraging start from their rookie left-hander yesterday, but let’s talk about one inning in particular that stood out to me.

We need to talk about the San Diego Padres’ Joey Lucchesi and his fourth-inning performance against the San Francisco Giants yesterday. Indulge me, if you will.

As noted by FOX Sports San Diego’s one-of-the-best-in-baseball broadcast booth, Lucchesi throws a 78-79mph pitch that he grips like a circle-change but releases like a breaking pitch. It breaks like a curve but tumbles like a changeup. It’s awesome.

Andrew McCutchen led off the inning. This was the first pitch McCutchen saw, on the outside part of the plate, for a called strike. Lucchesi followed that up with an 89mph two-seamer that was high and outside; 1-1.

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He threw the two-seam fastball again, again on the outside corner, this time for a swinging strike.

Cutch fouled back another “churve” (thank you, Mark Grant), then Lucchesi spiked what looked like a true-curve into the dirt for ball-two.

Joey Lucchesi then dropped that churvian nastiness on McCutchen once again, this time inside and had him flailing at it for strike three.

I watched that sequence at least four times. Know who I saw flashes of? Tom Glavine, mixing up locations with off-speed stuff and confusing hitters. A reach, you say? Walk with me, I implore you.

Lucchesi worked his way out of a huge jam, impressively to boot

Nick Hundley singled in the next at-bat, then Lucchesi answered back by striking out Evan Longoria on an outside “churve”, after moving across the entire plate with his pitch sequence yet again.

Hunter Pence singled on a first-pitch fastball, right down Broadway, moving Hundley over and bringing Brandon Belt to the plate with two on and two outs. Rookie mistake.

Joey Lucchesi’s sequence to Belt went inside-churve (foul), inside-fastball (ball), then a churve that darted from the heart of the plate to the outside by the time it reached Belt for a called strike.

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He then threw two consecutive balls, both high, but one outside and then one inside, before finishing him off, and the inning, with the exact same darting pitch he threw earlier in the at-bat.

Tom freaking Glavine.