Knuckleballer does something not seen in MLB since 2018

OAKLAND -- It’s 2023, and the knuckleball still plays in the big leagues.

Matt Waldron and the Padres beat the A’s, 5-2, on Saturday afternoon at the Oakland Coliseum. It was a fairly straightforward victory -- one team trying desperately to stave off elimination from playoff contention, over another team long since eliminated.

• Game Story: Padres pad lead on wacky throwing error ▶️

Still, this wasn’t just any Padres victory. This was Waldron’s victory -- the first in the career of the 26-year-old right-hander. And it had been a while since the last time a knuckleballer earned a win in a big league ballgame. Nearly five years, to be exact.

Waldron pitched 5 1/3 innings of two-run ball, using his knuckleball-heavy mix to induce plenty of weak contact. In the process, he became the first pitcher to use a knuckler to win a game since Steven Wright did so for Boston on Sept. 20, 2018.

“It feels pretty special,” said Waldron. “I do wish it happened sooner. I wish I’d executed a little earlier [in the season]. But it feels great, and I feel a little more part of it. I feel like I contributed, and that’s what feels good.”

No, Waldron is not your typical knuckleballer. Past knuckleballers like, say, R.A. Dickey and Tim Wakefield threw the pitch almost exclusively. They also generally threw it with less velocity than Waldron’s 76.2 mph average on Saturday.

Still, the pitch has the same effect. It flutters and dives, and opposing hitters have a hard time figuring out where it’ll move next. Waldron threw 34 of them, and no Oakland hitter managed to square it up at harder than 84 mph off the bat, per Statcast.

“It’s become a really good pitch for him,” said Padres manager Bob Melvin. “It makes his fastball better. It makes his breaking ball better. It’s a pitch that he’s throwing enough now where you have to look for it a little bit, so it’s making everything a little bit better.”

Waldron began throwing the knuckleball as a kid, mostly for fun in the backyard because he and his twin brother liked the way the pitch moved in video games. He toyed with it for years, from high school ball, to college at Nebraska to his time in the Cleveland system.

After he was traded to San Diego -- as a player to be named in the Mike Clevinger deal -- the Padres noticed him throwing the pitch on a bullpen mound on a Spring Training back field. They asked him to throw a few more in front of their tracking system. They liked the metrics. They liked the movement. They asked him to start throwing it in games.

That said, Waldron never ditched the rest of his arsenal, like most knuckleballers. Quite the opposite. He thinks his knuckleball makes the rest of his offerings play up. When a hitter is wary of the knuckleball, it makes his 91 mph heat appear harder. It makes the break on his slider and cutter more unexpected.

“I think the better the knuckleball is, the more it amplifies my other stuff,” Waldron said recently. “It opens up some more avenues.”

On Saturday, the Padres staked Waldron to an early lead with two runs in the first inning. Fernando Tatis Jr. provided the spark with a double, before Juan Soto knocked in a run with a sacrifice fly and Xander Bogaerts followed with an RBI single. Waldron had his lead and made sure it held up.

The Padres, of course, are without Yu Darvish and Joe Musgrove, who are both out for the season with injuries. Their absence cleared a place in the rotation for Waldron, who can make an early case for a 2024 roster spot with a strong performance down the stretch.

Prior to Saturday, Waldron had mostly struggled, posting a 5.55 ERA across five outings. But after an outing like this one, it was easy to envision Waldron’s efficiency and his use of the knuckleball in making him a prime candidate to devour innings next season in a role as a long reliever/swingman. For now, Waldron is merely trying to make the most of the chance he has been afforded.

“It’s been special,” Waldron said. “Of course I’m going to try and stay present. But I see it as an opportunity, and I want to try and really capitalize on it. It’s a really tough league, a tough game at this level. I’m just finding stuff to build on and progress.”