San Diego Padres: Eric Lauer Looking to Build Off of First MLB Win

The San Diego Padres got an encouraging outing from their talented young left-hander in his last start. Lauer looks to continue his success against the St. Louis Cardinals tonight.

Eric Lauer earned his first major-league win in his last start for the San Diego Padres. In six innings of work on May 6 against the Dodgers in Monterrey, Mexico, the 22-year-old allowed no earned runs while giving up seven hits, striking out five and walking just one batter.

After a rough first start on April 24 (three innings, six earned runs, four walks), Lauer bounced back in his next outing. In five innings against the San Francisco Giants on April 30, the young lefty allowed seven hits and walked two batters, but escaped with just three earned runs while striking out seven.

What the Padres need out of Eric Lauer moving forward is consistency. His debut-jitters have clearly passed, as he’s beginning to show more poise and intent in his pitches. His confidence level seems to be increasing with each clean inning that he throws.

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This is all extremely encouraging for an extremely young hurler who only pitched eighteen innings at Triple-A El Paso before getting the call from Friars’ manager Andy Green.

San Diego Padres had a good idea of the type of pitcher Lauer was

Over three seasons in the San Diego Padres’ minor league system, Eric Lauer pitched to a 3.04 earned-run average over 171.2 innings.

His 9.9 strikeouts per nine innings are quite impressive, as is his obvious penchant for control.

In those 171.2 MiLB innings, Lauer’s only walked 51 batters. While this isn’t a prodigious number, it shows that even without much seasoning in the minor leagues, Eric Lauer is a control pitcher who can also punch out his fair share of hitters.

Tonight, he faces a potent St. Louis Cardinals lineup that, even without Jose Martinez (disabled list), should still pose Lauer with a great test of where he’s at in his development.

Next: Lyles Impresses vs. Cardinals

Let’s hope he passes that test with flying colors. We could use the high times right about now. It’s shaping up to be a long season. Let’s go, Padres.