SAN DIEGO_Jacob Nix spoke Wednesday afternoon about his impressive major league debut five days earlier.
"Every game you're going to have a little bit of luck that plays into it," he said. "It's just trying not to do too much and not letting the pressure and the environment and everything get to you."
Whether or not Nix lost control of his nerves in a calamitous second start that lasted just two-thirds of an inning against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday night at Petco Park, he certainly lost command of the two primary pitches that had facilitated his excellent introduction.
After scattering four hits over six scoreless innings against the Philadelphia Phillies, Nix allowed all of the Diamondbacks' runs in a 5-1 defeat.
The Padres got just five hits _ one of them Hunter Renfroe's 13th home run of the season, in the eighth inning _ off Diamondbacks right-hander Clay Buchholz, who threw 112 pitches in his first complete game since 2015.
Nix had been the only one of the five Padres rookie starting pitchers to avoid a bad major league debut this season _ to make it just another game and throw strikes. And he was the only one to get a victory.
"Want more of the same," Padres manager Andy Green said Thursday afternoon. "Not asking him to change anything."
That meant tagging the proper lanes of the strike zone with his fastball and burying a still-developing but highly effective change-up.
That most certainly did not happen against the Diamondbacks, as the first eight Diamondbacks batters got five hits and two walks. Nix struck out Buchholz for the inning's second out and then hit Jon Jay before walking off the field with Green holding the baseball he had just taken from the 22-year-old right-hander.
Nix threw 42 pitches.
Of his 30 fastballs, 11 were called balls while one was hit for a home run, one for a double, two for singles and one hit Jay. Nix threw five change-ups _ three called balls, an infield single and a fly ball out.
The Los Alamitos native left to a polite ovation, most of the enthusiasm coming from the group seated behind the home dugout, including a few with "NIX" on the back of their jersey.
Kazuhisa Makita replaced Nix with the bases loaded and two outs. A.J. Pollock grounded out to end the first, and Makita pitched a career-high 3 1/3 innings without allowing a run.
Rookie reliever Trey Wingenter struck out all three batters in the fifth. He got Jay on a fly ball to start the sixth before Pollock hit a 101 mph line drive off Wingenter's right (throwing) arm above the elbow. The ball ricocheted past the first base line, as Wingenter had little outward reaction.
He was removed from the game, and Phil Maton finished the sixth with two quick outs before pitching a scoreless seventh. Robert Stock followed with a scoreless eighth, and Matt Strahm retired the Diamondbacks in order in the ninth.
