Padres Press Clips Thursday, June 21, 2018 Article Source Author Page Lucchesi's return brief as A's beat up Padres SD Union Tribune Sanders 2 Jacob Nix good but Missions' skid continues SD Union Tribune Sanders 4 Ted Leitner's return to the booth soothes concerned Padres fans SD Union Tribune Miller 6 Surgery an option as Padres reveal bone spur in Franchy Cordero's elbow SD Union Tribune Sanders 9 Bryan Mitchell placed on DL SD Union Tribune Acee 11 With hefty salaries coming, Wil Myers getting on track would boost SD Union Tribune Krasovic 12 Padres Lucchesi chased early as Padres fall to A's MLB.com Cassavell 15 Cordero mulling options on bone spur in elbow MLB.com Woo 17 Padres Mailbag: Putting a high price on relievers, possible Ross The Athletic Lin 19 extension, Weathers signing outlook and more Our nominees for the most improved defenses in baseball The Athletic Simon 22 Barreto's 3-run homer leads Oakland's barrage in 12-4 win Associated Press AP 23 This Day in Padres History — June 21 FriarWire Center 25 #PadresOnDeck: Kennedy, Fort Wayne Pitchers Sharp; Hedges, FriarWire Center 26 Myers Get Hits Padres back on the road to take on the Giants FOX Sports Stats 29 Matt Strahm Is Quite an Opening Act FanGraphs Sawchik 31 Could Padres be surprise entrant in Machado derby? FanRag Sports Heyman 34 1 Lucchesi's return brief as A's beat up Padres Jeff Sanders A Bay Area-native, Joey Lucchesi grew up rooting for the “Moneyball” A’s, the team that first popularized pairing power and patience in a lineup. That precise formula undid the 25-year-old rookie in a hurry on Wednesday. What was billed as Lucchesi’s much-anticipated return to the rotation devolved quickly into a 12-4 laugher that saw five Oakland longballs produce more offense than the Padres have produced during the entire four-game skid they are riding into San Francisco. The Padres left- hander allowed two of them before he was lifted in the second inning. “I guess I felt a little off, maybe a little rusty,” Lucchesi said after allowing four runs on three hits, two walks and a hitter batter in 1 2/3 innings. “ … I don’t want to make any excuses. I just wasn’t myself today. I just have to work hard the next few days to get ready for my start in Texas.” Of course, you certainly could make excuses. He’d missed more than a month with a hip injury (the good news is he didn’t feel a thing Wednesday). He’d thrown only 43 pitches in one rehab start against A-ball hitters. And he was so good, so efficient in that effort – up to a season-high 96 mph over four hitless innings – that he faced only one batter out of the stretch. Hindsight is 20-20, right? “When you go through a day like this and he had that kind of outing, sure you would to get him one more (rehab start) at this point in time,” Padres manager Andy Green said. “Every report I got was he was incredibly crisp and the ball was hopping out of his hand. … “Today was a battle from the get-go.” Indeed – and it started with Marcus Semien’s well-placed squeaker down the first-base line to open the game. Lucchesi fanned two of the next three hitters to strand that runner, but he hit the first batter he faced in the second inning, walked the next and left a full-count, 90 mph two-seamer over the plate. He didn’t bother to watch Franklin Barreto’s ensuing, 424-foot blast to left-center exit the playing field. Three pitches later, back-up catcher Josh Phegley bounced a ball off the second deck of the Western Metal Supply Co. building for a 4-0 lead. 2 “I thought the first inning he looked to me like he has all season long,” Green said. “Life on the pitches and the fastball beating guys. The second inning, the velo was down and the finish on pitches wasn’t as sharp or crisp.” Lucchesi walked one more batter before turning the game over to the bullpen, with only 30 of his 51 pitches landing in the strike zone. The four runs allowed tied Lucchesi’s season-high, while the five outs recorded marked the low point of his young career. He’d turned in at least five innings in eight straight starts after allowing three runs in 4 2/3 innings in his major league debut. “He’s thrown the ball really well for us this year,” Green said. “This was a tough return for him, but he’s going to bounce back from it and be just fine.” The bullpen that proved so dependable in Lucchesi’s absence eventually got on track – after Mark Canha and Matt Olson added back-to-back solo jobs in the third inning off left-hander Robbie Erlin. A third run crossed the plate that inning – when two throwing errors morphed an infield single into a Little League triple to set up Phegley’s sacrifice fly – before Erlin settled in for three scoreless innings to spare the bullpen too much more stress. Right-hander Phil Hughes covered two innings, allowing two of his three runs to score on a fifth and final homer from Jed Lowrie in the eighth. Infielder Cory Spangenberg mopped up the ninth with two runs allowed on two hits and two walks to push the Padres’ deficit to 12-1. Oakland right-hander Frankie didn’t need that much support. Spotted as 7-0 lead after 2½ innings, the 25-year-old rookie struck out six and scattered five hits and three walks over 6 2/3 innings. The only run charged to Montas crossed the plate on Spangenberg’s third-inning single. Christian Villanueva added a solo homer in a three-run ninth, giving the Padres seven runs over their last four games – all losses. The rut started with a shutout in Atlanta on Saturday. They scored a single run Sunday and two Tuesday before Brad Hand blew the save in the ninth inning. After running through several hard outs in the early innings during Wednesdays post-game briefing, Green reiterated that Tuesday’s loss was the one that stung the most in this two-game, Petco Park pit stop. “Today, to me, was far different than yesterday,” Green said. “I wasn’t thrilled with the quality of the at-bats. Today, the quality of the at-bats were really good early in this baseball game and the game slipped away from us.” 3 Jacob Nix good but Missions' skid continues Jeff Sanders Jacob Nix deserved to win Wednesday. Double-A San Antonio just isn’t doing much winning lately. The Missions lost their sixth straight game, this one a 1-0 defeat to Corpus Christi in which Ty France’s sixth-inning double accounted for San Antonio’s lone hit of the game. That made Nix (1-1) the tough-luck loser despite the 22-year-old right-hander striking out a season-high eight batters over seven strong innings. Nix allowed one run on four hits and no walks and threw 64 of his 96 pitches for strikes. Through five starts this year, Nix – a third-round pick in 2015 – has a 1.27 ERA, 20 strikeouts and a .147 opponent average through 28 1/3 innings in the Texas League. Nix is ranked No. 11 in the system by MLB.com. Right-hander Rowan Wick (3.41) followed with two strikeouts in the eighth inning and left- hander Brad Wieck (2.00) pitched a scoreless ninth. The Missions (0-2, 42-30) lost four games in a row to miss out on a first-half title and now the first two games of the second half. SHORT-SEASON TRI-CITY (3-3) • Dust Devils 5, Spokane 2: RHP Angel Acevedo (1-0, 1.50) struck out five and scattered one hit, two walks and a hit batter over five shutout innings in the win. 1B Justin Paulsen (.444) went 3-for-3 with a double, a walk and a run scored and LF Mason House (.200) doubled in three runs. C Blake Hunt (.250) went 2-for-3 with a walk and three runs scored. ROOKIE AZL PADRES 1 (2-0) / AZL PADRES 2 (0-2) • Padres1 7, Padres2 6: LHP Joey Cantillo (0.00) started the game with five strikeouts, one hit, a hit batter and two walks over five shutout innings in a no-decision. 1B Jason Pineda (.375) went 3-for-4 with a walk and a run scored and CF Angel Solarte (.273), C Alison Quintero (.625), LF Hunter Jarmon (.250), RF Agustin Ruiz (.375), DH Nick Gatewood (.222), 3B Carlos Luis (.333) and 1B Lee Solomon (.500) all had two hits. One of Solomon’s was a grand slam for a home run his professional debut after he was selected in the 25th round out of Lipscomb earlier this month. 4 ROOKIE DSL PADRES (10-6) • Orioles 6, Padres 4: RHP Eudi Asencio (9.00) struck out five and allowed three runs on five hits and three walks in 3 2/3 innings in the start. 3B Victor Nova (.286) went 1-for- 3 with two RBIs and 1B Emmanuel Guerra (.265) went 2-for-4 with an RBI, a walk and two runs scored. 5 Ted Leitner's return to the booth soothes concerned Padres fans Bryce Miller On the first pitch Wednesday between the A’s and Padres, visiting shortstop Marcus Semien sprayed a ball just inside the first-base line for a double.