Nearly five months after landing on the injured list, Nick Pivetta is coming back to the San Diego Padres’ starting rotation.
After Sunday’s 4-3 win over the New York Yankees gave San Diego its first series win in two weeks, manager Craig Stammen announced that Pivetta would take the ball for Monday’s series opener with the visiting Washington Nationals.
Pivetta went 1-2 with a 4.50 ERA in four starts before leaving an April 12 outing against Colorado with a forearm injury. It kept him from starting a rehab assignment until last month.
Following a rocky first appearance on Aug. 4 when he left mid-batter after appearing to injure himself again, Pivetta has progressed to the point where the Padres feel he can help the team during the season’s final three weeks.
In his last rehab outing on Aug. 30 for Triple-A El Paso, Pivetta struck out seven batters over 4 1/3 innings, looking more like the guy who went 13-5 with a 2.87 ERA last year and finished sixth in National League Cy Young Award voting.
“Seeing his fastball command that he had and the command of all his pitches — his curveball got a little bit better,” Stammen said. “He got his pitch count up to a spot that we felt comfortable bringing him up to the big leagues and seeing what he has.”
Pivetta threw 64 pitches in his last rehab start and might be on a pitch count of about 75 on Monday. San Diego (75-68) could have a short leash with him since the Padres are a half-game behind Arizona for the NL’s final wild-card spot.
In 15 appearances – 12 starts – against Washington, Pivetta is 3-7 with a 7.39 ERA. But he beat the Nationals twice last year, yielding only six hits and a run in 13 innings.
The Nationals will counter with fellow right-hander Jake Irvin (2-8, 5.57), who last pitched on Tuesday night during his team’s 9-5 victory over Atlanta. Irvin lasted just four innings, permitting five hits and two runs with a walk and five strikeouts. He allowed two hits and two runs in four innings during his only career outing against the Padres in 2023.
Washington (67-78) might be a little sleep-deprived when this one starts. The Nationals bused into town from Los Angeles late Sunday night after a 7-5 loss to the Dodgers that finished off a series and season sweep.
Washington wasn’t expected to get to San Diego until sometime after 2 a.m. Pacific time Monday, or less than 12 hours before the first pitch. The Nationals carried a 5-4 lead into the bottom of the eighth inning Sunday night before Mookie Betts launched a game-deciding three-run homer.
It marked the 37th blown save for the Washington bullpen.
“You can’t be a good baseball team if you blow that many saves,” first-year manager Blake Butera said. “We’ve been dealing with it all year. It’s a huge weight on all of our shoulders.”
Wasted in the latest bullpen debacle was CJ Abrams’ career-high 30th homer and James Wood drawing three walks to get within six of 100 for the year.
The Nationals took two of three from San Diego at the end of May.
–Field Level Media
