SAN DIEGO — Drew Pomeranz wasn’t in San Diego long enough to take up surfing or otherwise establish serious roots, but in 17 starts as a Padre, he did earn a reputation as a tough guy to hit at Petco Park.
The 27-year-old lefthander returned to face his old club on a sunsplashed San Diego Labor Day afternoon and while his start won’t go down as the most impressive of his career, it did keep the Red Sox close on a day when their bats were quiet.
Pomeranz, who was traded for highly regarded Red Sox pitching prospect Anderson Espinoza on July 14, just days after representing the Padres in the All-Star Game at Petco, pitched 5⅔ innings and allowed two runs on six hits with two walks and five strikeouts in Boston’s 2-1 loss.
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It dropped his record with the Red Sox to 2-4 in 10 starts.
“It wasn’t one of my best days, I was struggling, kind of battling to find my rhythm and timing a little, just kind of battling to locate my pitches,” said Pomeranz, who threw 66 strikes on 105 pitches and walked Padre pitcher Edwin Jackson to lead off the fifth inning. “I did get some big outs when I needed them but wish I had gotten through the sixth.”
A sharp curveball and a habit of keeping pitches down in the strike zone made Pomeranz particularly effective at Petco during his half-season stint as a Padre after coming down the coast from Oakland, where he spent two seasons with the Athletics.
Pomeranz went 4-3 with a 2.64 ERA at Petco (he allowed one hit in one inning of work during the All-Star Game) and got off to a solid start Monday as he allowed three hits through three scoreless innings.
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He got into trouble in the fourth.
With two outs, Alex Dickerson singled to center with the ball taking a carom off the glove of second basemen Dustin Pedroia, who may have saved a run at the end of the third when he made a leaping catch on a sharply hit ball by Wil Myers.
Then, Pomeranz threw two balls (one fastball, one curve) to Adam Rosales before hanging a waist-high fastball on his third pitch.
Rosales, who entered the day batting .214 with eight home runs, swung like he knew what was coming and smashed the ball over the left-field fence just out of the reach of a leaping Brock Holt to give the Padres a 2-0 lead.
“I didn’t even think that was going out,” said Rosales. “Like when I hit it off the bat, I didn’t even think it was going.”
Prior to the game, Red Sox manager John Farrell credited Pomeranz’s recent string of solid outings to gaining comfort with his new team and doing a better job of “locating his fastball.” In his six previous starts, Pomeranz was 2-1 with a 2.70 ERA and a .203 opponent batting average. His curveball remained nasty while his fastball was effective.
On this occasion, he missed with that fastball.
“Just got it up and he made me pay for it,” said Pomeranz, who had never faced Rosales. “He just put a good swing on it.”
Pomeranz’s day ended in the sixth inning after Dickerson laced a cut fastball thrown in a similar area of the strike zone as Rosales’s home run ball into right field. After being pulled for reliever Heath Hembree, Pomeranz strolled back to the visitor’s dugout and received nice applause from the large contingent of Red Sox fans who made Monday’s game feel something like Fenway Park West.
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Jackson earned the win and finished his day with 11 strikeouts, the most by a San Diego starter since Pomeranz did it back on May 11.
“[Pomeranz] gave us what we anticipated,” said Farrell, who seemed more concerned with his team’s lack of offensive production than anything to do with Pomeranz’s performance. “Six innings of quality work. It was a well-pitched game on both sides.”