San Diego Padres: Five Most Dominant Pitching Performances At Petco Park

#4) 7/2/2014- Tyson Ross Goes The Distance In Three-Hit Shutout

Tyson Ross climbed the mound on a Wednesday afternoon back in 2014 to take on the Cincinnati Reds, backed by an infield consisting of Tommy Medica and Irving Falu. That didn’t matter to Ross, who allowed just three hits and did not issue a single free pass. He struck out nine hitters on the afternoon, leading the Padres to a 3-0 victory, their 38th win of the season.

A two-out, bases loaded single by Rene Rivera scored three runs in the bottom of the first inning, as both teams failed to score for the remainder of the game. After the rocky first inning, Johnny Cueto settled down for six-shutout innings, striking out eight San Diego hitters.

It was the seventh victory of the season for Ross, who saw his ERA lower to 2.93. He threw 120 pitches, 87 of them for strikes.

#3 and #2) 6/20/2005 and 9/2/2006- Jake Peavy With 27 Strikeouts Across Two Outings

The San Diego Padres career strikeout leader has thrown two of the most dominant starts in Petco Park history, including the only eight-inning start within the top 12 performances.

We’ll start with that outing, pitched on June 20th in front of nearly 42,000 fans on a Monday evening. The 38-31 Padres took down the Los Angeles Dodgers, as Jake Peavy went eight innings, giving up just two hits and one walk while striking out 13.

Peavy took a perfect game into the fifth inning, before giving up a one-out single to Olmedo Saenz. The only other hit Peavy gave up on the evening was a double to the opposing pitcher, Brad Penny. As with the case in most of the games on this list, the Padres offense provided little support for Peavy, outside of a 3-3 day at the plate from Brian Giles, who was credited with the only RBI of the game.

Peavy was pulled after 124 pitches, giving way to future Hall of Famer, Trevor Hoffman, who closed the door on the Padres 39th win of the season and his 18th save up to that point.

Just over a year later, Peavy tossed the second top performance on this list, a complete game victory over the Cincinnati Reds.

He allowed two hits, one earned run (a solo HR by Adam Dunn), and two walks, while striking out 14 hitters. Reds’ leadoff hitter Ryan Freel finished the night 0-4 with four strikeouts.

His 14 strikeouts are tied with Dan Straily (Miami) and the late Roy Halladay (Phillies) for the second most strikeouts in a game by one pitcher at Petco Park. You get one guess as to who holds the record….yep, it’s Jake Peavy. Peavy struck out 16 hitters on May 22nd, 2006, falling to John Smoltz and the Atlanta Braves.