SAN DIEGO_Another night, another rookie.
Another loss, with a hopeful eye toward better things to come.
Walker Lockett on Friday night against the Cincinnati Reds became the third starting pitcher to make his major league debut for the San Diego Padres this season.
Just as Joey Lucchesi and Eric Lauer did before him Lockett struggled in his maiden outing, walking five and allowing four hits and four runs before being lifted with two out in the fourth inning.
The 24-year-old could have been a lot better, and he still wouldn't have gotten a win.
The Padres managed just five hits off Reds rookie Tyler Mahle (4-6) and then nothing more until a double by Hunter Renfroe, a walk by Raffy Lopez and Freddy Galvis' triple in the ninth accounted for the totality of their scoring in a 7-2 loss.
However this one ended up, the night was about another mile marker in the Padres' process.
Lockett was the seventh rookie to pitch for the Padres this season and the 11th rookie to appear in a game for the team.
The Padres' 137 innings pitched by rookies entering Friday were the sixth most among major league teams. Lockett's start was the 17th by a Padres rookie, second to the Miami Marlins' 25.
The 436 at-bats by Padres rookies were also second to the Marlins, who had 494 as of Friday.
The lack of novelty in Lockett's arrival offers context for the Padres' 25-34 record.
But for those who knew what this was going to be and have bought into the purpose, it is far from excruciating, even if the immediate results are frustrating.
"It's exciting for me," Eric Hosmer said. "You hear so much about them. You hear they should be really good. It's kind of like, 'All right. Let's see what he's got.' It's exciting to see how he responds, how he reacts to a big-league atmosphere. You learn a lot about him those first couple starts, not just by performance and numbers out there but by how he handles things."
That's the thing about this team. There is a lot of learning going on.
The lessons appeared to be sticking of late, as the Padres took a three-game winning streak into Friday after completing a May in which they went 15-13.
Relief pitcher Craig Stammen, who is in the first season of a two-year contract, may or may not be here in 2020 or beyond. When he arrived in San Diego in 2017 after experiencing four straight winning seasons with the Washington Nationals, the losing was deflating.
"Last year, I was definitely struggling with it at the beginning," Stammen said. "I talked to Andy (Green) about it a lot. He explained that either you are for the team or you're against the team; you're going to be part of the solution to the problem, or you're going to be part of the problem. ... You realize this game is not about you. It's about the other guys in the clubhouse. If you can watch the other 24 guys get better, that's exciting."
Stammen called this season "fun" and "a challenge to do a good job passing along" knowledge.
"You want to selfishly be competing for a World Series," he said. "Not that we're not. But there is also a growth part to it. There are two parts to this process _ growth and winning. If we keep working at it, before we even realize it we're going to be where we want to be.
"I think it's already starting to happen. We had a bad start to the season. In May, we had a winning month. That's something to be excited about. I was pretty pumped when I saw that."
Lockett certainly won't be the last of the kids to come up this season.
The Padres have a couple more minor leaguers they want to try out and at least a couple more prospects they anticipate getting to the big leagues this season.
"There's reason to believe in these guys," Green said. "We'll grab hold of those reasons and try to translate it into positive performances on the field."
