Nick Pivetta’s return has given the Padres exactly the kind of lift they were hoping for when they brought him back into the rotation in September.
After missing nearly five months with a flexor strain in his right elbow, the San Diego right-hander has looked sharp enough to matter in October. He was solid in the Wild Card round, and his work against the Chicago Cubs helped San Diego finish off the sweep.
Pivetta’s road back started with a rough Opening Day outing, when he gave up six earned runs in three innings in an 8-2 loss to the Tigers. He settled in after that, though, allowing just two earned runs across his next two starts. Then came the April 12 start against the Colorado Rockies, when he opened with three perfect innings and four strikeouts before the injury struck in the fourth.
Three days later, the diagnosis came down. “It’s probably going to be more weeks and maybe months than it is just specific days," Stammen announced at the time. "We feel pretty confident he’s going to get back this year.”
That call turned out to be right, even if the timeline stretched almost five months.
Pivetta rejoined the rotation on Sept. 7 and wasted little time looking like himself again. Over his final four regular-season starts, he logged 18.2 innings and gave up only three earned runs, good for a 1.45 ERA. Then he got the nod for Game Two of the Wild Card series against a Cubs lineup that led MLB in scoring.
He delivered. In 3.1 innings, Pivetta allowed three hits and one run while striking out four, setting the tone for San Diego’s 4-1 win and series sweep.
Jared Greenspan of MLB.com singled out the outing in an Oct. 2 piece that highlighted four “eye-opening” Wild Card performances, with special attention on Pivetta’s fastball. “Pivetta validated the decision [to start Game Two], allowing one run while recording 10 outs against baseball's best offense, bridging the gap to the Padres' vaunted bullpen,” Greenspan wrote.
“Of note, Cubs hitters went 1-for-10 with three strikeouts against Pivetta's four-seam fastball. The heater induced five whiffs on 16 swings.”
Greenspan noted that the pitch plays not because it’s overpowering on the radar gun - it averages 94.0 mph - but because Pivetta’s 57-degree over-the-top arm angle, the fifth-highest in the game, gives it a rising look that makes hitters swing underneath it.
That kind of stuff gives the Padres a real reason to believe Pivetta can be a major part of the puzzle as they move on. He would line up to start Game Three against the Brewers at Petco Park on Oct. 6.
In Other News...
Padres Season Now Hinges On One Painful Game 2 Decision
The Padres had the kind of Game 2 that lingers, the sort that turns a single inning into the center of an entire postseason conversation. Mason Miller was asked to get the final six outs, but he could not finish the job, and Milwaukee walked it off on Jackson Chourios two-run single for a 4-3 Brewers win that pushed San Diego to the brink. Millers command wavered badly along the way, and by the end of the night the choice to keep him in drew plenty of scrutiny.
Now San Diego heads home down 2-0 in the NLDS and staring at a simple but punishing equation: win three straight or the season is over. The pressure is no longer just on the lineup to score or the bullpen to hold, but on the decisions that shape each high-leverage inning from here on out. One game changed the tone of the series, and it left the Padres with very little room to survive another misstep. [Read more 🡒]
Padres Explain Late Mason Miller Call After Crushing Game 2 Collapse
The Padres Game 2 loss in Milwaukee left them staring at an 0-2 hole in the National League Division Series, and the way it unraveled only deepened the sting. San Diego had turned to Mason Miller for six outs in a high-leverage spot, trusting the closer to help lock down the game, but the plan fell apart in the ninth when his command slipped and the Brewers kept pressing until Jackson Chourio delivered a walk-off two-run single.
Afterward, manager Craig Stammen and Miller both addressed the late call to extend him beyond the usual closer usage, a decision that now looms over a crushing collapse. For a Padres team that needed one clean finish to even the series, the choice to ride Miller that long became part of the postgame conversation, with the result leaving San Diego to answer not just for the loss, but for how it got there. [Read more 🡒]
Brewers Just Got A New NLDS Concern As Series Shifts Home
As the National League Division Series shifts to San Diego for Game 3, the Padres added another experienced arm to the mix by reinstating right-hander Walker Buehler from the paternity list. To make room, Randy Vasquez was taken off the roster, a move that reflects how tightly San Diego is managing its pitching staff as the series changes venues and the leverage starts to climb.
Buehler is expected to matter if the matchup goes beyond Game 3, which gives the Padres a little more flexibility in how they piece together the back half of the series. For a club trying to control every pitching decision in October, getting him back into the active roster only adds to the questions Milwaukee now has to account for as the series moves forward. [Read more 🡒]