Chris Paddack knew where he had gone wrong.
He took 30 pitches to get through the first inning of his June 25 start against the Diamondbacks and let it consume him. He started concentrating on how he would make it through five innings “instead of coming out and focusing on pitch 31.” He lasted just 2 1/3 innings that day, giving up five runs along the way.
When he ran into trouble in the first inning in his next start, allowing the Phillies two runs on two hits this past Friday in Philadelphia, Paddack applied what he had learned and kept going through seven innings while allowing two more hits and only one additional run.
On Wednesday, he got yet another chance to pick himself up after a long first inning.
He could not turn this one around, as the Washington Nationals did the bulk of their scoring against him in what became a 15-5 rout.
Juan Soto, the game’s third batter, hit a three-run homer before Paddack escaped the first inning. The Nationals scored four runs in the second inning and another run before Paddack walked off the field with no outs and runners at the corners in the third. One of those runners scored as Paddack watched from the top step of the dugout.
The nine runs, eight of which were earned, were three more than Paddack allowed in any of his previous 53 career starts. The nine hits the Nationals got tied a career high, and the two innings (plus three batters) tied a career low.
Paddack’s ERA swelled almost a full point to 5.40, the inflated number due almost entirely to outings such as Wednesday rather than consistent awfulness. Paddack entered Wednesday’s game having gone at least six innings while allowing three or fewer runs in five of his previous eight starts. But this was the third start in which he went fewer than five innings while allowing at least five runs.
The Padres’ runs came on Manny Machado’s RBI single in the fifth inning, Eric Hosmer’s home run in the sixth, and Trent Grisham’s two-run homer and Victor Caratini’s RBI single in the ninth.
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