Los AngelesLos Angeles—The Padres have three starting pitchers on rehab assignments. There are a number prospects they could begin to look at when rosters expand next week. For an organization shifting its focus to the future, there are plenty of reasons to suspect Clayton Richard could find himself in the bullpen before long.
Friday’s start may be as compelling as any.
The veteran left-hander served up two home runs among the nine hits he allowed, didn’t make it out of the fourth inning and Dodgers left-hander Rich Hill cruised through his six innings in an 11-1 romp at Dodger Stadium that sent the Padres to a season-worst 31 games under .500.
“We’re going to have to make some decisions in time,” Padres manager Andy Green said after losing for the 10th time in 14 games against the defending NL West champs. “I don’t think that decision is today by any stretch, but in time we definitely have to make some decisions on how this rotation will play out through the month of September.”
One thing’s for certain: Eric Lauer will return to the rotation at some point, perhaps as soon as next week after turning in 3 1/3 scoreless innings Friday night with Triple-A El Paso, his second rehab start since landing on the disabled list with a forearm strain.
Luis Perdomo (shoulder) was also set to start a rehab assignment with El Paso and Bryan Mitchell is five starts into his rehab assignment with high Single-A Lake Elsinore, though both could rejoin the team as bullpen options as easily as they could find themselves starting games down the stretch.
The same goes for Richard for a variety of reasons.
He’s 34 years old. Outside the impression he leaves on a young staff, he’s not part of the long-term plans in San Diego. Most of all, the coaching staff knows what Richard, in the last year of his deal in 2019, will bring to the table next spring even if he’s allowed a 7.83 ERA over this 10-start slump.
“Clayton’s always been a guy that’s given great effort,” Green said. “He’s out there giving great effort. He’s just run into a team that when he steps on the mound against them he’s had a lot of trouble recently. It’s been a while since he’s had good outing against them and he’s been in a little bit of a struggle stretch for himself right now too.”
The seven runs Richard allowed were tied for a season-high. Only six were earned because Manny Machado scored from first when right fielder Franmil Reyes booted the ball on Matt Kemp’s first-inning single, wasting Richard’s best look at a scoreless frame.
Instead, Richard gave up one unearned run in the first, three run-scoring hits in the second, Chris Taylor’s solo homer in the third and Justin Turner’s two-run shot in the fourth.
“It’s extremely disappointing to put your team in a hole like that,” Richard said. “I’ve got no excuse. It stings to have an outing like that.”
Unfortunately, they’ve been more common than not in his career against the Dodgers, who have a career .302/.371/.448 batting line in 27 starts against Richard.
In fact, Green said rival teams’ familiarity that has led the sinker-balling Richard to explore pitching up in the zone, albeit without much success of late.
“I don’t think he’s consistently making his pitches,” Green said. “When I’ve seen him successful, it’s pounding the bottom of the zone and just beneath the zone with his sinker. It’s groundball after groundball after groundball. I think he’s tried to explore a lot of different quadrants of the zone and I don’t think it’s played particularly well as time’s progressed.
“To get him back to being really effective, to me it’s just the bottom of the strike zone with this sinker and trust that they’re going to hit balls into the ground more than they are going to hit balls in the air.”
Richard chalked up the exploration to the “cat-and-mouse” game between pitchers and hitters.
“At first it was the walks,” Richard said. “I’ve cut those down recently. Now it’s pitches in the zone getting hit and getting hit hard. We’ll work through it and make adjustments to change that.”
Right-hander Miguel Diaz gave up two runs in the fifth inning before Phil Maton gave up Max Muncy’s two-run homer in the seventh following a scoreless sixth.
By then Hill was well on his way to an easy win.
He retired the first 12 hitters he faced, didn’t give up a hit until Hunter Renfroe’s fifth-inning double and struck out eight over six shutout innings. He allowed only two hits and walked one batter.
Freddy Galvis tripled and doubled out of the leadoff spot, the latter plating a run in the eighth to avoid a 10th shutout loss this year.
“It’s a tough one, a tough one for everybody,” Green said. “It’s tough to swallow when you come into a place and want to play good baseball and win a series and it’s a tough foot to get off on.”
jeff.sanders@sduniontribune.com; Twitter: @sdutSanders
