San Diego Padres: Joey Lucchesi with a solid start in Padres loss

After getting hammered in his last start against Oakland, San Diego Padres pitcher Joey Lucchesi looked much more like his pre-injury self on Monday night.

San Diego Padres LHP Joey Lucchesi didn’t last long on Monday night, but he looked much better than he did in his last start against the Oakland Athletics. The Texas Rangers, however, were able to run up his pitch count, and unfortunately for the Friars, that meant an early exit after four innings. The man they call “Joey Fuego” (though I’m also trying to get “Joey Fastballs” to catch on) brought the heat down in Texas. He struck out four, giving up one hit, no runs and two walks on the night.

After giving up two home runs, two walks, and hitting a batter in 1.2 innings against Oakland, Lucchesi looked calm and collected on Monday night. The rookie rebounded well, producing four groundball outs to just two flyball outs, over his four innings of work.

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Green pulled Lucchessi early, obviously choosing to remain a little cautious with him after coming off the disabled list. He had a hard limit on his pitch count of 70 pitches.  However, the bullpen didn’t quite have enough tonight to preserve the Padres 3-0 lead. In their defense, they have been putting in a lot of work lately. Those bullpen day starts that we all formerly loved have come at a cost.

Lucchesi would walk away with a no-decision and Craig Stammen would get the loss. It shouldn’t be entirely surprising considering his ERA over the last seven games has been north of six. Tonight’s outing certainly didn’t help that case.

The rookie Robert Stock looked promising, but still, he stumbled a bit. Only giving up one run thanks to a little help from Hunter Renfroe and Austin Hedges.  He got himself into a bit of trouble giving up those three hits, but Stammen couldn’t seem to shut the door on the last out of the inning. Adam Cimber would then make an appearance and give up a run as well.

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Despite the offense showing brief signs of life in the top of the 9th, Kela was finally able to get Manuel Margot for the final out. Hey, the guy already gave us three runs to start the game. He can’t do it all, right?