On Monday night at Petco Park right-handed pitcher Michael Wacha made his 212th career Major League start. It's hard to imagine any of the previous 211 were as good as this one.
Wacha took a no-hitter to the 8th inning, striking out a career-high 11 hitters and, perhaps more importantly, helping the Padres snap their 5-game losing streak with a 4-0 win over the Royals.
The veteran righty, signed after the start of Spring Training, looked like he did when he was an All-Star with the Cardinals in 2015. In the 7th inning he struck out Salvador Perez and Nick Pratto before getting Edward Olivares to ground out to end the inning. At that point he'd thrown 101 pitches so manager Bob Melvin had a talk with him in the dugout. It wasn't a serious chat.
Melvin never considered not allowing his guy to go out and chase history but was spared a potentially difficult decision when Michael Massey lined a clean single to right field to lead off the 8th. Wacha was replaced by Nick Martinez and walked off the field to a loud standing ovation from the Friar Faithful (who are still waiting to see a Padre hurler throw a no-hitter in San Diego).
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His fabulous outing masked what was another sub-par performance from the Padres offense. This time, though, they did it against the team with the 2nd-worst record in baseball so they were able to get away with it. Royals starter Brad Keller was truly awful. He walked eight hitters in 3.2 innings and had all kinds of trouble finding the strike zone. In fact, the Padres got their first run when Keller threw a pitch over the head of everyone at home plate and against the backstop, allowing Fernando Tatis Jr. to trot home from 3rd base.
Amazingly, despite the avalanche of walks Keller only allowed three runs because they still have trouble with runners in scoring position. Tatis Jr. finally got a knock with Trent Grisham at 2nd base to drive in their second run of the game in the 2nd inning. The Friars got another run in the inning, but not in a way anyone is happy about. With the bases loaded Keller lost a curve ball and hit Manny Machado squarely in the left hand. Machado, who prides himself on his pain tolerance, stayed in the game but was replaced two innings later. Melvin says x-rays did not find anything broken and Manny will be evaluated again on Tuesday.
The Padres got their final run with another timely knock in the 7th inning. Ha-Seong Kim lined a single up the middle to bring Xander Bogaerts home from 2nd base. San Diego was an underwhelming 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position but that's still a step in the right direction.
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The Friars can win a series for the first time in two weeks when Seth Lugo takes the mound against Brady Singer on Tuesday night at Petco Park.
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