San Diego Padres: Clayton Richard looks for a clean slate in August

Clayton Richard did not exactly shine for the Padres in the month of July.

He went 0-3 in six starts and had an atrocious ERA of 7.50. Teams facing Richard that month had a .378 wOBA against him, and his collective ERA in the second half so far has been even worse at 10.38. Needless to say, no one is happier than Richard that the month of July has come to an end.

He’ll get a fresh start tonight against one of the NL Central’s powerhouses in the Brewers. A stretch that’s not the easiest for the Padres having the Cubs and the Brewers back to back, but they managed to show of some power of their own splitting the previous series. It should be somewhat of a comfort to Richard knowing that the offense hasn’t been completely lacking as of late, and even more so that his last start against the Brewers at the end of March was a particularly dominant one. The Brew Crew was held to just one run and six hits over the course of seven strong innings out of Richard. He struck out four batters and only walked one.

While Richard is likely on a list of pitchers that aren’t part of the Padres long term plans this year, he’s for the most part, been one of their steady ships in a very up and down (though let’s face it, mostly down) season. Through June in particular Richard looked great, he had a 3.27 ERA and his opponents batting average was only at .214. Perhaps even more impressive, he only gave up a single home run in the entire month.

The Padres are hoping Richard can get back some of that dominance from June. At least while we continue to patiently wait for some more of that young farm talent to make their debut.