Arrieta injured as Padres lose in his debut

Another heartbreaker for the San Diego Padres. Like many of the recent losses, a breakdown of starting pitching lit the fuse.

The starting rotation has been stung by a swarm of injuries. When the pitchers are healthy, they don’t typically work deep into the game. Here is where Arrieta comes into the picture. The Cubs, a team who made it clear they aren’t competing this season, dropped him after posting a 6.88 ERA.

Now, why would a team competing for the playoffs sign a player that just got released from the Cubs?

His role is simply to eat innings. That’s it. He will eat innings, so the bullpen does not get as taxed. If the Padres saw potential in him, they would have gone after him at the trade deadline when pitching was scarce.

Well, on Wednesday, he failed to do his sole job.

Arrieta only lasted 3.1 innings of really rough baseball. In his short outing, he allowed seven hits, five earned runs, walked one, and struck out one. To Arrieta’s credit, he only allowed three hard-hit balls. Although, all three of those hits contributed to at least one run.

Think back to his role of eating innings. Even if he were struggling, it would make sense to let him continue if it meant saving the bullpen. Well, in the 4^th inning, after giving up a home run to Dom Nunez, Arrieta was pulled from the game with a hamstring strain. If Arrieta can’t eat innings, it may mean the end of his tenure as a Padre.

“As the game went on, I thought the second, third, into that fourth inning, I thought Jake’s stuff was getting sharper. I felt velo was good. The movement was good. I thought he was getting more in the zone, and it was very encouraging,” Jayce Tingler said about his new pitcher.

On the other offensive side of the team, at the plate, the Padres did everything they could and still got unlucky. As a group, they had three hits, all with an expected batting average over .500 that resulted in outs, of the biggest being a flyout by Tommy Pham. His hit had a .660 expected batting average. And with the tying run being Trent Grisham at first base, that easily could have tied the game.

One player who loves to play at Coors Field is Wil Myers. He has a .352/.401/.663 slash line when playing at Coors Field. Every time he finds a way to rake, and today was no exception. He launched two home runs that helped bring in three runs.

14th Home Run of the year 🔥 @wilmyers puts the @Padres on the board!#HungryForMore l @Padres pic.twitter.com/X3ffXSaP24

— Bally Sports San Diego (@BallySportsSD) August 18, 2021

Another Padre with a great game was Jake Cronenworth. He continues to earn recognition for his play on both offense and defense. In the first inning, he made a heads up to save one or more runs. He fielded a sharp grounder, got the force out at second, then threw home to catch a runner trying to score. With the bat, he doubled in the 6^th and later came around to score.

The Padres are on a cold streak right now but can get hot at any second. They will have a chance on Friday when they face the Phillies.

Evan Anderson

Evan is a student finishing up a degree in Finance from Northern Arizona University. The ability to break down numbers and find the story behind them has lead to his first of writing for East Village times. He covers baseball which is the sport he grew up playing and has followed even after his playing years.