Matt Waldron was for a time a pillar that propped up the Padres’ rotation.
“He has been really fantastic,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “I mean, he was a big (lift) for us when Joe (Musgrove) and Yu (Darvish) went down. He really stepped up and (provided) a lot of quality innings. Gave us a lot of ballgames where he won, gave us a chance to win.”
But now, Waldron’s first full season as a starting pitcher in the major leagues has hit a wall.
On Wednesday, he allowed more earned runs than any Padres pitcher ever had in a home game, as the Twins salvaged the finale of the teams’ three-game series by ravaging the Padres 11-4 on an otherwise pleasant San Diego afternoon at Petco Park.
“Just not a good one,” Waldron said. “There’s zero positivity out of me right now.”
With the loss and the Diamondbacks completing a sweep of the Marlins, the Padres fell into a tie for the top National League wild-card spot.
Of more concern, with 34 games remaining, is the hole that has developed in their starting rotation in a spot that for a good portion of the season was so solid.
“I want to get back to that,” Waldron said. “And I think the tough thing about this game and, you know, maybe life even, (is) when things are negative, it’s hard to snap out of that and forget about what it was or what it can be or what it will be. Just kind of forgetting — forgetting mistakes — has been a little bit more difficult.”
The Twins’ seven-run fourth inning was the worst by any Padres pitcher this season, and the 10 runs Waldron was charged with were the most yielded by a Padres pitcher since Clayton Richard allowed a team-record-tying 11 (10 earned) at Colorado on July 19, 2017.
The only other pitcher to be charged with 10 earned runs at Petco Park was Minnesota’s Joe Ryan, who did so on the Twins’ previous visit in 2022.
Those things happen.
It is the continuation of a skid in which Waldron is not getting enough outs and allowing far too many runs that is troubling for the Padres.
Wednesday was the fourth time in five starts the knuckleballer surrendered at least five runs.
The 27-year-old right-hander has a 10.50 ERA and 1.67 WHIP in those five starts, during which he has thrown a total of 24 innings.
This follows a stretch of 14 starts in which he had a 2.76 ERA and 0.99 WHIP, 13th and ninth best, respectively, among qualifying major league starters in that span.
From May 7 to June 24, Waldron had a 1.95 ERA and the Padres won six of the nine games he started. The Padres were 17-19 in their other games in that stretch, as the rest of the rotation posted a 4.57 ERA.
It was six starts ago that Waldron ed the 113⅓ innings he threw in the minor leagues in 2022. And at 142⅔ innings this season, he is now 3⅓ innings shy of the total he threw between the University of Nebraska and the two bottom rungs of the minor leagues in 2019.
This, of course, is a different level with different demands.
Wednesday was his 26th start of the season and his 32nd in the major leagues.
The indicators that Waldron could be buckling under the workload are mixed. His arm slot has dropped, and he acknowledged some mental fatigue and a little barking in his elbow, which he said was “nothing crazy.” But the velocity and spin on his pitches remain at previous levels.
“I think mentally, just knowing … I’ve never thrown this many innings — so getting used to this workload as a whole,’ he said. “Like, I’m not done yet. I’m not even close. The fun stuff hasn’t even started yet. So I just need to get over that hump.”
In addition to figuring out how to navigate repeated starts at the highest level, Waldron is working through how to employ his unique primary offering, the knuckleball.
“I believe I belong on this field, and obviously that doesn’t show right now, and especially on a day like this,” he said. “Physically, I think I’m capable of getting there. I think my stuff definitely has to sharpen up and maybe even rely more on the knuckleball. I’ve got to go to the drawing board. It’s gonna take some serious work.”
The Padres on Wednesday were also facing a pitcher in his first full big-league season in Simeon Woods Richardson, a 23-year-old right-hander no Padres batter had faced in the major leagues.
Their lone run in Woods Richardson’s five innings would come on Donovan Solano’s pinch-hit homer in the fifth. They added three runs in the eighth against Ronny Henriquez, two of them coming on a Jackson Merrill home run, before the Twins added a run off Jeremiah Estrada in the ninth.
It was 1-0 after three innings and 8-0 after four. Waldron departed with one out in the fifth, having allowed another run and with a man on base. That runner scored off rookie Sean Reynolds, who went on to throw a career-high 2⅔ innings without allowing a run.
“Sean, picked me up,” Waldron said. “I’m glad he did that, because that’s what a good team does. They pick each other up. I just, I wish I was better.”
