Padres Joe Musgrove does it again

Friday night the San Diego Padres took on the Colorado Rockies for the very first time this season. The Padres couldn’t have imagined a better way to open the season matchup against a division foe. Leaving Padres fans in a great mood to open the weekend with a 9-0 victory over the Rockies.

Player of the game: Joe Musgrove

We often link Manny Machado as the team’s MVP, which is completely understandable because he plays every game and not every five or six depending on the rotation size.

But, you can make the case Musgrove is equally as important to this team. He leads the league in ERA at the moment and the Padres are 10-1 in his starts. The one loss? It was an anomaly of a game where the Padres were leading 2-1 until a three-run home run by Ke’Bryan Hayes in the top of the 9th made it 4-2. It was Hayes first home run of the season and it was Taylor Rogers on the mound, not Musgrove.

Back to tonight, yes the Rockies are in last place. Yet, they just won a series in San Francisco. So there was some momentum coming into tonight. Yet, Musgrove shut down any momentum really quick in his 6 IP, 4 H, 2 BB, and 0 ER outing. This marks back-to-back shutout games for him. The last time Musgrove had consecutive shutouts with at least 6 innings pitched were his first two starts as a member of the Padres. Yes, the second start was the no-hitter.

Musgrove’s 1.50 ERA is the lowest by a Padres pitcher in their first 11 starts of the season since fellow no.44 Jake Peavy in 2007. This year’s all-star game will be in Los Angeles, wouldn’t it be ironic to have a Padres pitcher start the game? I’m here for it.

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