If San Diego Padres pitcher Nick Pivetta intended to fly his friends and family out to Atlanta next week, now’s the time to start inquiring about refunds.
San Diego has spent most of the last month holding the NL’s No. 6 seed, which would entail the Padres likely playing the Braves during the Wild Card round. However, Saturday night’s 7-6 walk-off win over the Marlins pushed the Padres past the Phillies into the No. 5 seed.
At their current pace, the Padres would face the Cubs at Wrigley Field beginning next Tuesday. Depending on how the final week plays out, we might even see San Diego host the three-game set; the Padres woke up on Sunday technically tied with Chicago for the No. 4 seed, though the Cubs hold the tiebreaker.
And while much of the attention has rightfully been on Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado, it’s time to give Pivetta his flowers.
The San Diego Padres need Nick Pivetta to pitch deeper during the playoffs
The fact that Pivetta is even healthy ahead of the postseason is remarkable, considering that he missed most of the year with a flexor strain and elbow tightness. That combo never works out well for pitchers, much less a 33-year-old who started at least 26 games in four of his previous five full seasons.
We don’t blame Padres manager Craig Stammen for keeping Pivetta’s workload relatively light in recent weeks. The 10-year vet hasn’t pitched more than five innings in his last three starts, though Friday night’s 76 pitches marked his most since returning from the IL.
And even if he’s not at full strength, Pivetta has nonetheless held opponents to a 1.93 ERA and only one walk over those 14 innings. San Diego has won all three games, including Friday’s 8-2 romp over the Marlins.
Assuming Michael King starts Game 1 of the Wild Card Series, it remains unclear whether Pivetta would take the mound in Game 2. Randy Vásquez has moved to the bullpen, and Walker Buehler owns a 4.58 ERA over 30 starts.
Personally, we’d hand the ball to Pivetta for Game 2. Buehler’s control is too erratic for us to trust him in a potential elimination game, and we’re not sure how many innings the Padres could realistically get out of Vásquez.
Although Casey Mize and Robbie Ray could also be options, neither has justified earning a playoff start. In fact, we’re not even sure if we’d carry Mize on the postseason roster, seeing as the longtime Tigers pitcher has been worth -1.0 bWAR over 40.1 innings since arriving at the deadline.
Pivetta was adequate in his lone playoff start last year, allowing two runs — both on solo homers — over five innings in a Wild Card Round Game 1 loss to the Cubs. For his sake, he’d better hope the offense has his back this time around.
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