Why Another Six-Inning Start Was a 'Big Night' for Chad Patrick

A shutout of the offense left him with a tough-luck loss, but Friday night’s outing was a significant one for Chad Patrick. The 26-year-old worked six innings for a second consecutive start, allowing just one run and providing crucial length as the Brewers begin a 10-day homestand without an off day.

If there’s any knock to be made against Patrick’s stellar rookie season, it’s that he has not often worked deep into games. Entering Friday, he had failed to complete five innings in six of his 12 starts.

Patrick has kept runs off the board but hasn’t been efficient, and the Brewers have enforced a quick hook in many of his outings. They’ve had valid reasons for handling him that way; Patrick is a young starter who throws a fastball variant 90% of the time, making him vulnerable against good lineups a third turn through the order.

It appeared early on as if his latest outing would unfold similarly. Patrick threw 67 pitches through his first four innings, and if the Brewers preferred to shield him from the heart of the San Diego Padres order a third time, he appeared headed for another short start. Instead, he breezed through a 10-pitch fifth, positioning him to start the sixth.

“The first three innings, it felt like command was off, and then we kind of dialed it back in there the next three,” Patrick said postgame.

Unlike his last start, in which he pitched six innings in a blowout victory over the Philadelphia Phillies, the Brewers sent Patrick back out in a close game. Pat Murphy said they planned to take the same batter-by-batter approach that they have at the tail end of his other starts.

In past outings, like his start against the Boston Red Sox on the last homestand, he failed to complete the inning. Patrick allowed traffic amid waning stuff, prompting a call to the bullpen. This time, he continued looking strong, striking out Manny Machado and Xander Bogaerts to bookend a scoreless frame.

“We were going to go hitter-by-hitter there,” Murphy said. “And then he looked good and got him out, and we just let him keep going, the next hitter, the next hitter.”

To complete that sixth inning, Patrick started turning toward his changeup, a pitch he had used just 5.8% of the time this year. Five of the seven he threw Friday night came in that frame. His inning-ending strikeout of Bogaerts was on a rare right-on-right changeup.

With that punchout, Patrick successfully navigated the meat of an opposing order for a third time in a close game. While the Brewers have no qualms about pulling starters early for matchup reasons, every club prefers its pitchers learn how to work deeper into games.

“It was kind of planned that way,” Murphy said, noting that Rob Zastryzny was ready for mid-inning relief if Patrick ran into trouble. “But you’re also trying to bring that pitcher along. You’re trying to bring him along to be able to do that, saying, ‘This is the third time around, and I’ve got to execute.’ And he did.”

“It’s awesome,” Patrick said of making good on the opportunity. “I honestly thought I was only going to face Machado there, and ended up getting him and kind of locked back in. It was like, ‘Alright, it’s your inning. Go finish the job.’”

It was the next step for a young pitcher who had already been indispensable for an injury-ravaged staff and now ranks 14th among qualified pitchers in fWAR this year.

“I think that trusting that he can go the third time through,” Murphy said. “Trusting that we believe in him that he can do that. I thought it was a big night for him.”

“It definitely brings my confidence up for sure,” Patrick said.