Why the Padres’ bullpen is their most pressing area of need

SAN DIEGO — Jeremiah Estrada arrived at Petco Park on Thursday thinking he would have the night off. He had pitched the previous two days in muggy Philadelphia weather, and he’d never pitched three days in a row, even in the minor leagues. Thanks to the rigors of the season and a recent bout with flu-like symptoms, he had lost 23 pounds since the start of spring training. Then the San Diego Padres’ ascendant setup man learned that closer Robert Suarez — who also had pitched the previous two days — was unavailable.

“Whenever the team needs me, I want to be there. Honestly, if the team needs me today, I would most likely say yes,” Estrada said Friday afternoon. “They’ll probably tell me no, but I’m like, ‘If you guys need me, I’ll be good.’ I like to be there for the guys.”

He was there for them Thursday evening, and he managed to make history at less than his best. Before the Padres hit a walk-off home run in three consecutive home games for the first time ever, Estrada recorded the first blown save of his career as the Milwaukee Brewers rallied to tie the score in the ninth. He also became just the third major-league pitcher since 1893 to strike out three batters in an inning on three straight days. (The other two: Raisel Iglesias for Cincinnati in 2019, and John Hiller with Detroit in 1975.)

“I felt like I made some good pitches yesterday,” said Estrada, who topped out at 97.9 mph and got seven whiffs with 28 pitches. “Just some guys got to it. It’s just baseball.”

It was, but the Padres have been playing a risky brand. Friday night, with the team’s top setup man unavailable, a San Diego starting pitcher failed to complete five innings for the sixth time in seven games. No. 1 starter Dylan Cease finished an out shy as he struck out 10, threw 106 pitches and surrendered four runs. His ERA rose to 4.14, underscoring an ongoing issue several weeks before the trade deadline: The Padres, who got a career-high five hits from Jake Cronenworth and 15 overall in a 9-5 win against the Brewers, could use more help for their rotation.

Yet, with Yu Darvish due to come off the injured list next week, the team’s most pressing need remains more help for the bullpen. Friday, Estrada was one of three Padres relievers who had pitched in three of the prior four days. (Estrada had pitched in four of the past five, throwing 27 pitches Sunday at Citi Field.) Estrada, Suarez and left-hander Adrian Morejon had combined for a 2.27 ERA, with each pitcher on track to shatter his career high in major-league innings — and with Suarez already having provided at least four outs on seven occasions. The rest of the bullpen had totaled a 4.78 ERA. One offseason acquisition, Enyel De Los Santos, has allowed more home runs (nine) than any other big-league reliever. Another, Yuki Matsui, trails only two others with 22 walks issued. A third newcomer, Wandy Peralta, has given up six runs across his past five appearances.

Friday, then, qualified as a clear success. A banged-up Padres offense nicked four Brewers relievers for four runs on nine hits. Lefty Tom Cosgrove, newly recalled from Triple-A El Paso, relieved Cease and got four outs without allowing an earned run. In some of the highest-leverage work of his season, Rule 5 draftee Stephen Kolek covered the next four outs and held Milwaukee to an unearned run. De Los Santos retired five batters, kept the ball in the yard and logged his first save of the year.

The most notable sequence, though, might have come in the bottom of the eighth. Cronenworth, who had already supplied three singles and a home run, notched a two-out double. Manny Machado followed with an RBI single, notching his fourth hit of the night and giving the Padres a four-run lead. In the home bullpen, Suarez temporarily stopped throwing. He would remain a spectator in the top of the ninth, too.

“It was huge,” manager Mike Shildt said later. “That extra run was important.”

Before the game, Cosgrove returned to the home clubhouse for the first time since April 30. He was optioned that day, with a 10.50 ERA that dwarfed the 1.75 mark from his surprising rookie season. His struggles continued in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, where Cosgrove yielded 14 runs over his first seven appearances. Since then, he had permitted one unearned run across nine innings.

“It was pretty simple, really,” Cosgrove said of his early-season implosions. “My fastball metrics weren’t what they used to be like. I didn’t have the sinker I had. I didn’t have the four-seamer I had. … It just took me a while to find it and get it going again.”

Confident that Cosgrove had rediscovered something, the Padres optioned rookie starter Adam Mazur on Friday and added a ninth arm to their bullpen. Darvish is expected to officially replace Mazur in the rotation either Monday or Tuesday.

“Fresh arms,” Shildt said, “are appreciated right now.”

Jeremiah Estrada heads to the mound Thursday night. (Orlando Ramirez / USA Today)

Meanwhile, another pitcher was still feeling the effects of having thrown 85 pitches across five days and two different time zones. It helps, of course, that Estrada is young.

“Yeah, the arm’s a little bit tired and sore, but it’s not like it’s about to fall off,” Estrada said. “And I think the preparation for getting these days in, getting these situations in that I’ve gone a lot of back-to-backs — I mean, I’ve pitched four times in five days, and I’m not feeling so bad.”

Estrada, 25, is learning the preparation it takes to succeed as a high-leverage reliever in the majors. “It’s all new,” he said. “It’s all come fast, too.” Less than two months ago, he was in Triple A, still honing a new slider and the new-ish splitter that has taken his career to unprecedented heights. Now, he is the owner of an expansion-era strikeout record and the Padres’ most trusted high-leverage weapon after Suarez.

The kid from the Coachella Valley makes history. pic.twitter.com/trkMkDYS8C

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) May 29, 2024

For advice on how to adjust to a new role, Estrada said, he has turned to such veterans as Suarez and Peralta. He has stayed in frequent communication with pitching coach Ruben Niebla and bullpen coach Ben Fritz. A steady dialogue has become even more important because Estrada is still getting over an illness that kept him away from Petco Park on June 11. The next day, while pitching against Oakland, he almost vomited on the mound.

“It’s just, like, stomach issues,” Estrada said. “Before spring broke out, I weighed 238. Now I’m 215. And (after) I got sick, I lost, like, seven pounds.

“But I’m still pitching. It’s baseball. You got to do what you got to do.”

Estrada indicated Friday he was feeling significantly better than he did 10 days earlier. In the intervening time, his ERA had jumped from 0.86 to 3.55. The same span saw him strike out 12 of the 26 batters he faced. Even at less than his best, he has demonstrated he can be a force out of the San Diego bullpen.

Yet, with Estrada still learning on the job and few reliable arms in that bullpen, the Padres’ most urgent need has become increasingly obvious.

(Top photo of Jeremiah Estrada: Orlando Ramirez / USA Today)