Nick Pivetta put his hands on his head as Wilyer Abreu’s fourth-inning drive sailed over the right-center wall.
The Padres’ right-hander had endured only a handful of poor starts this year, but Friday was not an optimal time for an “off” night.
For one, the team that allowed Pivetta to leave as a free agent was in town.
The Padres were also looking for as much length as possible from their best pitcher on the eve of Michael King’s return, so six innings in a 10-2 laugher at the hands of his old Red Sox friends was at least a small victory for Pivetta.
Again, a small victory.
After all, Pivetta had spent the previous four seasons with the team that knocked him around in the middle innings in front of a sellout crowd of 44,061 at Petco Park.
Even he didn’t try to downplay the proverbial revenge start against the Red Sox.
“It’s exciting,” Pivetta said earlier this week. “I’m going to take great pride in it. I look forward to it. I think it’ll be interesting. Try to just keep my emotions in check and make sure I’m doing the right things. (Try to be) more focused on is it left-handed, right-handed hitters, rather than people that I spent the last four years with.”
It would have been easy to let his emotions take over.
Pivetta had a serviceable 4.29 ERA over parts of five years in Boston, good enough for the front office to extend a $21 million qualifying offer and so-so enough to wonder if he might accept the hefty one-year salary.
But Pivetta was looking for a bit more security and finally got it when the Padres came to him in February with numbers that made sense both for a fiscally-conscious team and a pitcher wading into the open market for the first time.
A four-year $55 million deal is paying Pivetta $4 million this year and another $19 million next season. He’ll get the rest over the ensuing two years if he doesn’t opt out after either the 2026 or 2027 season.
A two-year stay in San Diego is a real possibility, too.
His 11 wins are already a career high, he’s flirting with the first sub-4.00 ERA campaign of his career (he’s at 2.94 even after a rough Friday night) and he’s generally keeping the ball in the yard more than he ever has.
So Friday was indeed a rare “off” night.
For both Pivetta and a Padres offense that managed little off former Dodgers right-hander Walker Buehler (6 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BBs, 4 Ks) and was already in an eight-run hole when it finally scored off Boston’s bullpen in the eighth.
The Padres scored runs that frame on a groundout from Ramón Laureano and a single from Jake Cronenworth, but Fernando Tatis Jr. struck out with the bases loaded and Luis Arraez flied out to left.
Pivetta had retired eight in a row when Alex Bregman singled through the middle of the infield to start the fourth inning.
From there, Pivetta made things worse on himself.
He walked the next two batters to load the bases and would have been happy to escape with just one run allowed on Masataka Yoshida’s sacrifice fly to center.
But a second run scored when Pivetta threw wildly to first base on a pickoff and Abreu opened up a 4-0 lead when he yanked a hanging curveball 423 feet to right.
It was just the fourth home run that Pivetta had allowed over his eight starts.
The Red Sox strung together two more hits in pushing across a fifth run in the fifth inning, but Pivetta at least retired three straight hitters after Yoshida’s double to start the sixth inning, ensuring that the bullpen would only have to cover three innings.
It was the 16th time in 23 starts that Pivetta had completed six innings.
He finished with three strikeouts and five runs allowed on five hits and three walks. He threw 68 of his 103 pitches for strikes.
Yuki Matsui recorded four outs after Pivetta’s exit, but Sean Reynolds — the ninth reliever and the likely roster casualty when King comes off the injured list Saturday — coughed up three runs on four walks and a Connor Wong’s bases-clearing double in the eighth and surrendered a two-run homer to Yoshida in the ninth.
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