San Diego Padres starting pitcher Clayton Richard showed why the Padres had enough confidence in him after a mediocre showing in spring training to give him the #4 slot in the rotation.
Even in a losing cause, Richard kept the Padres in the game with 7 innings of effective pitching. He gave up 7 hits and 3 runs while striking out 4 and walking 3 in the thin Colorado air.
Meanwhile the Padres batters could manage just 1 hit off Colorado Rockies starter Jorge De La Rosa. Other than a single by Everth Cabrera, the Padres seemed baffled by De La Rosa's change up, often swinging at pitches a foot or more out of the zone.
The Padres batters didn't fair any better off the Rockies bullpen, getting just one hit in the final two frames off Rafael Betancourt and rookie Esmil Rogers.
Sean Gallagher sealed the Padres fate by coming in and surrendering 5 hits and 4 runs including a 3 run blast to Clint Barmes in the 8th inning.
Although he was once one of the most promising pitching prospects in baseball and has seen time in the major leagues for parts of 4 years, Gallagher showed today why the Padres felt he was not ready to be a starter.
The final score was 7-0 Colorado and the Padres dropped to 1-3 on the season.
There are a bunch of online analysts who don't think that much of Richard. I think they're stat heads (though there's nothing wrong with that) who use the same yardstick for lefties that they use for righthanders, and see his 90 mph. fastball as marginal instead of above average for a lefty. Fortunately, they don't run the Padres.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you can do a post on how differently lefthanded pitchers should be evaluated vs righthanders? And throw in a comment about some peoples' lurid fetish for fastball velocity above all other measures while you're at it!
Larry Faria
Ocean Beach