Erick Fedde impresses again; leaves one up for Fernando Tatis, Jr.; Nationals lose to the Padres in Petco...

In three starts as part of the Washington Nationals’ rotation, after he made five appearances out of the bullpen to start the season, Erick Fedde had a 1.93 ERA, a 4.86 FIP, seven walks, and eight Ks in 14 innings pitched before he took on the Padres last night in San Diego, CA’s Petco Park.

Fedde’s first appearance of the 2019 campaign was in relief against the Padres back on April 28th in the nation’s capital, when he tossed four scoreless against the NL West club.

The 26-year-old, 2014 1st Round pick took the mound in Petco coming off a four-inning, 85-pitch outing on the road against the Cincinnati Reds in which he surrendered six hits, three walks, and two earned runs in what ended up a 5-2 win for the Nats in which he received no decision.

“The more I see him, the more I see a kid that’s maturing as he’s up here,” Nationals’ skipper Davey Martinez said after Fedde’s brief but effective start against the Reds.

“He had his struggles, but he maintained his composure and poise and gave us all he had,” Martinez added.

“He had a lot of pitches and a lot of stressful innings, but he went out there and took the ball and that only shows me that he’s maturing and getting a lot better up here,” the Nats’ manager said, pointing to his head.

Fedde gave up a run early in his fourth start of the season on Friday night, with Fernando Tatis, Jr. singling, moving up to second on a groundout, stealing third, and scoring on a weak grounder to third base, 1-0.

Padres’ hitters were making solid contact, but Fedde held them to the one run through five, and was up to just 60 pitches, with three hits allowed, and four Ks from 17 batters. He gave up a leadoff single in the home-half of the sixth, however, and a two-run homer by Tatis, Jr. on a 3-2 slider he left up and out over the middle of the plate. He left the game trailing 3-0...

Erick Fedde’s Line: 6.0 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 5 Ks, 1 HR, 90 P, 57 S, 6/4 GO/FO.

... but the Nationals picked him up, scoring three in the seventh, and one in the ninth, 4-3, before the Padres scored two in the bottom of the inning and walked off with a 5-4 win.

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Fedde said he got Tatis, Jr. swinging with a first-pitch slider before giving up the home run, and he went back to the pitch with the count full and left it up.

“The 0-0 pitch was a slider that he swung and missed at,” Fedde said, as quoted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman.

“I thought that was a really good pitch, and we could get a ground ball, or maybe a swing and a miss. Unfortunately I just left it a lot on the plate, and he made me pay.”

“Fedde was good,” Martinez said after the loss. “He threw a 3-2 pitch up in the zone, but to me that was the only really bad pitch he threw, but if we can get that out of Fedde, we’re going to be in good shape, like I said, every time he goes out there he’s getting more and more confident, he’s making pitches, and he pitched really well.”