Vintage Wacha strikes out 10 in Padres' win over Braves

ATLANTA -- Michael Wacha, a decade into his big league career, is still so utterly Michael Wacha.

His bugs-bunny changeup is baffling hitters as usual. His command remains impeccable. His poise? Unshakeable as any pitcher in the sport.

Wacha was at his vintage best in the Padres’ 4-1 victory over the Braves on Saturday night at Truist Park. He pitched six scoreless innings, allowing just two hits and one walk while tying a career high with 10 strikeouts. He outdueled an old nemesis, too.

San Diego’s right-hander and Charlie Morton -- who started for the Braves on Saturday -- have been squaring off for a while. Their matchups date back to some ferocious contests in the National League Central, when Morton pitched for the Pirates and Wacha for the Cardinals. The most famed of those matchups: Game 4 of the 2013 NLDS.

The Pirates, having ended their two-decade-long playoff drought, were a win away from the NLCS. Wacha, a newly promoted rookie, took the ball at an unruly PNC Park. That's when Matt Carpenter began to realize what the unflappable 22-year-old might ultimately be capable of.

"I remember just being so impressed with him,” recalled Carpenter, Wacha’s teammate in St. Louis. “He'd just gotten called up a few months prior. That was his first postseason start, and it was on the road, in a hostile environment, Pittsburgh -- a team that was hungry to be back in the postseason. It, still to this day, might be the loudest postseason crowd I've ever heard. … He came out and just silenced them."

That’s the day Wacha burst into baseball consciousness. He went on to win NLCS MVP later that month. Shortly thereafter, he entrenched himself as a front-of-the-rotation weapon on some excellent Cardinals teams. He’s made a career out of pitching big games for teams with World Series aspirations.

So when the Padres needed a starting pitcher to fill out their rotation in February, Wacha seemed like a natural fit.

“What Wacha did today, I mean, it really showed what he’s made of and why we signed him,” said manager Bob Melvin. “He had every pitch working.”

Juan Soto, who had been scuffling to start the season, finished with two hits, including a third-inning moonshot to give Wacha an early lead. The Padres tacked on two more in the fourth, and they could’ve had more, if not for one of the strangest plays at the plate in recent memory.

Amid a collision with Braves catcher Travid d’Arnaud, Rougned Odor missed the plate. He attempted to go back and touch it, but Ha-Seong Kim scampered home and touched the dish first. Odor was ruled out on appeal.

“I was going to slide head first, and when I was going to slide, [d'Arnaud] was on top of the plate,” Odor said. “So I was just trying to touch the plate and trying to score in that situation. I guess I missed the plate.”

Added Melvin: “It’s one of those plays that just don’t happen. … It’s just one of those plays you don’t see.”

In the first two games of this series, every run proved vital. Every inch seemingly became a mile. The Padres led by three on Saturday, but they’d blown leads in each of the first two games of the series. It felt like that type of miscue might’ve loomed large.

Until Wacha ensured that it didn’t.

“In a close game where every pitch really matters, it’s great to see him pitching like that -- against a lineup like they have and as hot as they’ve been,” Melvin said.

The only drama from Wacha came in the first inning, when he attempted to field Ronald Acu?a Jr.’s comebacker with his bare hand. On a cold night, Wacha said it stung for about 30 seconds. Then he regained full feeling in his hand and made easy work of one of the best lineups in baseball.

“I had pretty much everything going where I wanted it to,” Wacha said. “I was making pitches pretty much all night.”

The Braves’ only real chances came against the Padres’ bullpen. They scored a run and threatened for more in the eighth, when Manny Machado robbed Austin Riley with a diving stop to his left. In the ninth, closer Josh Hader slammed the door but only after allowing the first two men to reach base.

It marked the second consecutive night in which the Padres used both Hader and set-up man Luis García, essentially ruling both out for Sunday Night Baseball. If San Diego is going to win this series, it’ll have to do so without its two most formidable back-end arms.

That’s a problem the club is happy to have after two straight victories.