Jacob Nix has two starts and a decision about his health left to make.

The rookie right-hander, who has a 5.75 ERA in seven starts since making his major league debut Aug. 10, will pitch Saturday against the Dodgers and next weekend against the Diamondbacks.

Then he plans to see two specialists about a bothersome hip adductor that has delayed the start of his past two seasons.

“I’m just gathering as much information as possible,” he said. “I don’t want to have surgery.”


To that end, he has consulted with EVO UltraFit, the company that designs the program used to great success by reliever Robert Stock, which involves use of a machine that provides electrical stimulus to certain areas of the body an effort to hasten recovery and communication between the neurological system and muscles.

The area near Nix’s groin requires extra maintenance and is extremely sore after he pitches. He wants to move past that discomfort and concern and also said, “I don’t want to be compensating for something down the chain.”

Nix has hit 94 and 95 mph with his fastball this season but has averaged 93 mph, almost 2 mph slower than 2017. He also has talked of battling his mechanics much of this season, which involved him being sidelined virtually all of spring training and then getting ready for the minor league season in a span of a little more than a week in May.

“I don’t know if that’s because of building up quick or the groin or what,” Nix said.


With the added knowledge gained in his first big-league stint, he anticipates taking a big step next season and wants the injury issue behind him.

“I think coming into next year healthy, getting a real spring, will help,” he said. “… Our plan is by Nov. 1 I will decide to have a procedure or, if the EVO is working, I’ll probably stick to that.”

Safe at home

Travis Jankowski was sleeping Wednesday when Clayton Richard came into his room, woke him and said, “You have to get going.”

Jankowski had slept through several calls from his wife, who eventually contacted Ashley Richard to ask that the Richards’ house guest be alerted he needed to get home to Pennsylvania because he was about to become a father.


Clayton Richard rushed Jankowski to the airport, and Jankowski arrived at the hospital about an hour before Lindsey delivered their first child, a son named Bentley, three weeks before the due date.

“He wanted to be fast like his dad,” said Jankowski, who met the team in Los Angeles.

Galvis remembers Welke

In his one season with the Philadelphia Phillies, in 2006, Don Welke signed a 16-year-old shortstop from Venezuela.

“I remember his talking to my dad all the time,” Padres shortstop Freddy Galvis recalled Friday. “A good man, a happy man.”


Welke, who died Wednesday at the age of 75, was the second person to call Galvis after the Padres acquired him in a trade in December.

“He said, ‘Finally I got you on my team,’ ” Galvis said. “When I saw him in spring training, we talked for like one hour. He was really happy to see me. I was happy to see him too, because the way he is with people is amazing. He was a nice person, an honest person. That’s how I will remember him – a nice person, a happy person who was good to be around.”

kevin.acee@sduniontribune.com