Once upon a time, Jarred Cosart’s power right arm ranked among the best prospects in baseball. On Monday, his Padres debut in a 7-3 win over the Brewers illustrated just how far the 26-year-old right-hander has to come to recapture momentum lost.
Acquired Friday from the Marlins in the Andrew Cashner deal, Cosart managed to escape a wild 3 1/3 innings of one-hit ball without yielding a run despite walking six, hitting a batter and throwing just 34 of his 77 pitches for strikes.
He struck out three, had double play balls help him out of the second and third innings and breathed even easier when Carlos Villanueva stranded two runners in the fourth after a final walk to Ramon Flores forced Padres manager Andy Green to the mound a second time.