Ian Kennedy (right) has struggled so far in 2015. (Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports)
SAN DIEGO — Where has the pitching gone?
That is the biggest question to the Padres’ 19-20 start.
The Padres’ team earned-run average soared to 4.43 Sunday after the Washington Nationals hit a pair of three-run homers in a 10-5 rout of the Padres.
Last season, the Padres had the worst offense in the major leagues. But the pitchers had a staff ERA of 3.27. That was the fourth-best mark in the major leagues and the second best in the National League.
This season both the offense — which was overhauled during the winter — and the pitching has been xenophobic.
Offensively, the Padres have scored 175 runs, the third-highest total in the National League. But they have also been shut out six times and scored eight or more runs seven times. But they have scored one or zero 10 times.
On the flip side, they have given up more than 10 runs six times, including for the third time in six games Sunday.
“We’re Jekyll & Hyde,” said Padres manager Bud Black. “We’re not having many 3-2 and 4-3 games. It’s been a lot of feast or famine.”
Particularly for the starting pitchers.
After allowing one walk and no hits with six strikeouts through four innings Sunday, right-hander Ian Kennedy allowed six runs on three hits and three walks in a span of nine hitters. Over his last two starts, Kennedy has allowed 11 runs on 11 hits and seven walks in 9 2/3 innings.
And he’s not the most troubled of the Padres’ five starters. Right-hander Odrisamer Despaigne, who is in the rotation because right-hander Brandon Morrow is indefinitely on the disabled list with shoulder inflammation, has allowed 15 runs on 20 hits and three walks in eight innings over his last two innings.
The Padres have yet to go through a complete turn of the rotation without at least one starting pitcher having a bad — no make that terrible — outing.
