When it comes to Padres pitcher Dinelson Lamet, potential and puzzlement fight it out like a couple of overserved guys warming bar stools for too long on dollar beer night.
For each high, a low. For each up, a down. For each moment of confidence, a sobering splash that reminds how uncertain the road remains for perhaps the most unpredictable and intriguing rotation piece in 2020.
Is Lamet the talented young arm with four pitches — and a fastball-slider combo that could wipe out innings in any city — or yet too fickle of fortune, vulnerable to the big inning and unable to pile up enough of them, as was the case Tuesday in an 8-5 loss to the Orioles at Petco Park?