Padres Daily: All it takes; Pivetta strikes again; good company; McCoy’s robberies

Good morning from Detroit,

That was a fairly easy game to sum up.

“Fortunately we had Nick Pivetta,” Padres manager Mike Shidt said. “And Adam and Suarez and Diaz.”

That quote is in my game story too. But it really is an apt summation.

You can read (here) in that story about how pretty much all the Padres got and pretty much all they needed for a 2-0 victory over the Tigers was another gem from Pivetta, Elias Díaz’s two-run homer and an inning apiece from Jason Adam and Robert Suarez.

Sometimes, fortunately for a team down three of its core offensive players, that is all it takes.

The Padres are mostly getting by one way or another.

They have had the best record in the major leagues for more than two weeks.

They were tied with the Dodgers and Mets yesterday. They are tied with only the Mets this morning.

A lot has been said about how good the National League West has been so far this season. Today is the first time in 2025 that the four good teams from the division have been situated this high in the standings:

Crazy that it sometimes can seem the Padres aren’t playing that well.

But for whatever nitpicking we can do about throws to the wrong bases or runners not going when they should or bunts that weren’t executed, they do continue to play pretty well despite what they are missing.

They could not possibly have kept up what they were doing. They could not have continued winning as they were. They could not have continued getting all the good bounces they were.

We can divide their season into thirds. They went 7-1 at the start, then 6-2 and are 4-4 over the past eight games.

They are one of four teams that have yet to lose more than two games in a row.

Wins like last night, eked out against an exceptionally sharp Jack Flaherty, are precious.

Consistency

Nick Pivetta has cautioned multiple times the past few weeks that it is too early to make judgments about this season.

He won’t get any argument here.

But the fact is Pivetta has not only never been this good at the start of a season, he has never been this good over any five-start stretch.

You can read the game story to see how he went about holding the Tigers scoreless over seven innings while allowing a single baserunner in four different innings (two singles, two walks) and only once pitching with a runner in scoring position.

Through five starts, he leads the NL in ERA (1.20), WHIP (0.77) and batting average allowed (.155).

Here is what those five starts look like:

Pivetta had never before over the course of an entire season had three starts in which he went at least seven scoreless innings.

He did it twice in each of the previous three seasons.

In 2022, he had five starts in which he pitched at least seven innings without allowing more than three hits.

That was also the season he had a run that resembled this one.

In six starts from May 7 through June 4 of that season, he had a 1.32 ERA while going at least six innings in every game and throwing one of his two career complete games. He then allowed four runs over five innings in a start before posting a 1.93 ERA and going at least six innings in each of his next four starts.

In that 11-start stretch, he had a 1.95 ERA over 74 innings and allowed a .184 batting average.

Then … he lasted six innings in just two of his final 17 starts and finished ‘22 with a 4.56 ERA.

I wrote (here) after his first start with the Padres about mechanical changes he made. I wrote (here) after his third start about why his fastball, which isn’t exceedingly fast, plays so well.

“He looks better now,” said Padres shortstop Xander Bogaerts, who played three seasons in Boston with Pivetta. “I didn’t see so much of this. … He’s mixing it so well.”

Last night might have been Pivetta’s most impressive work in the sense that he was not sizzling right away.

The only start he was not effective this season was the one in which he was behind a lot. The way last night began, it seemed that might happen again, as he threw just 10 strikes among his 20 pitches in the first inning.

Pivetta contradicted an observation that he was “just missing” early.

The numbers said otherwise. So did his first walk.

So did his catcher.

“He was missing high … for a bit early in the game,” Díaz said. “But we were able to call some pitches a little bit down the zone more to the center part of the plate, and that gave him a little more confidence to be working with those pitches.”

Pivetta was behind 2-1 or 3-0 to four of the first five batters he faced last night. He would go on to face 21 more batters and throw two balls among his first three pitches to just two of them.

It is remarkable how much he has dominated counts this season, save for his one clunker.

Here is a breakdown:

Here for the fielding

Mason McCoy had exclusively played shortstop in his 25 previous major league games.

He had not played second base at Triple-A this season before being recalled Monday when Luis Arraez was placed on the seven-day concussion injured list. And he played there just twice in 2024 and a few dozen times in all his minor-league seasons.

He said before the game, “It’s gonna be interesting.”

It was spectacularly so in the eighth inning.

With one out and the Tigers’ Javier Báez on first base, Kerry Carpenter yanked a high popup down the right field line. McCoy ran a total of 113 feet to the side wall, leaped and caught the ball as he fell backward onto the tarp with his head going into the netting.

“There is so much foul ground over there,” McCoy said. “…  There’s just a lot more foul ground than we’re used to. So as soon as he hit, I just kind of broke. I saw Gavin (Sheets) trying to give it a run too. I was just trying to beat it to a spot. I got under it enough to where I kind of called Gavin off (at the) last minute and just tried to get the glove up there.”

McCoy was not finished.

Two pitches later, he had a chance to make a play that was a lot harder than it even looked, as his line of sight was partially blocked both fielding and throwing the ball.

Gleyber Torres hit a ball 95 mph off the bat, up the middle, just missing pitcher Jason Adam and bouncing to the shortstop side of second base. McCoy dove to grab the ball, hopped to his feet and threw out Torres even as the savvy Báez was clearly moving as much as he could to position himself  between McCoy and first base.

“It was right in line with Jason off the bat, and so I didn’t see it originally, and then it kind of kicked, and I dove,” McCoy said. “And I came with the throw, and Javy was, like, shifted over. He laughed. He was like, ‘I was trying, trying to get in the way.’ And I was like, ‘I know. I saw you.’”

Good company

The Padres’ seven shutouts are tied for the most in MLB history through a season’s first 24 games.

It has been accomplished six other times since 1901, most recently by the 1992 Braves.

Those Braves shutouts came in games started by Charlie Leibrandt, Mike Bielecki, Steve Avery and Hall of Famers Tom Glavine (three) and John Smoltz. Six of those were complete games.

The starters for the Padres’ shutouts this season have been Kyle Hart, Randy Vásquez, Michael King (two) and Pivetta (three). King threw a complete game.

Tidbits

• Fernando Tatis Jr. got a single in the last of his four at-bats last night to extend his on-base streak to 23 games, a new career high. He has at least one hit in 11 consecutive games and is batting .344/.417/.644 with eight home runs this season.
• Tyler Wade has reached base safely in all seven games he has started. He is batting .286 (6-for-21) with a .444 on-base percentage (six walks).
• Bogaerts got his sixth infield single of the season, tied for fifth most in the major leagues.
• Last night was just the sixth game the Padres have played in which the home team batted in the ninth inning. That is because they have won 12 of their 13 home games and are 5-6 on the road.

All right, that’s it for me. Early game (10:10 a.m. PT) today.

Talk to you tomorrow.

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Originally Published: April 23, 2025 at 6:30 AM PDT