PEORIA, Ariz. — There was much focus the past couple days on Mason Miller not pitching for the United States in the ninth inning in the championship game of the World Baseball Classic.
It was the Padres’ stipulation that Miller could pitch that night only in a save situation after he had pitched in the quarterfinals and semifinals over the four days preceding the final.
“I wasn’t expecting to even be permitted to, honestly,” Miller said Thursday on his first day back in Padres camp after the United States’ 3-2 loss to Venezuela. “We went into it and said, like, we didn’t really want to do three out of five. We said (if) you pitch in the quarters (and) in the semis, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there. And I was grateful that I was able to be available with those limitations. I didn’t get the chance to throw, so a little disappointing. At the same time, we understood that kind of (restrictions) going into it, so it wasn’t a surprise necessarily.”
Miller struck out 10 batters in four hitless innings in the WBC and said he was better for the experience as he readies for his first full season with the Padres.
“Can’t fake it, can’t substitute it, can’t simulate it,” he said. “… Just pitching in a lot of situations I’ll be pitching in all year. So getting that out of the way early and feeling like you’re ready to go, I think it puts you in a really good place.”
Spring heat
The hottest part of the day here is the late afternoon, after the ground has had a chance to bake for several hours. With a night game Thursday, that was the part of the day the Padres were practicing.
It was 103 degrees when infield coach Ryan Goins began putting players through drills. Rather than doing so on the field, where the individual work is usually conducted, Goins worked with players in the shade of an overhang outside the batting cage.
The Padres did eventually get on the field briefly for batting practice.
While they did, an ice cream truck pulled into the facility and parked near the clubhouse.
Fernando Tatis Jr. stops to get an ice cream after batting practice.
An excited Fernando Tatis Jr. ordered an orange popsicle with vanilla ice cream inside.
“I needed something really refreshing right now,” he said. “It’s 100 degrees. What just happened? It’s really hot.”
Shortly after 6 p.m., for first pitch against the White Sox, it was 101 degrees.
The high of 103 on Thursday was a record for the hottest March day in the Phoenix area since records began being kept 130 years ago and the earliest the temperature hit triple digits here in that time.
Thursday was also just the second March day here to ever top 99 degrees. Friday will be the third. And the temperature is not expected to drop below 100 until Sunday, when it is expected to be 98. That is also the forecast for Monday, the final day of camp.
The Padres play split-squad games Friday night before finishing with three afternoon contests.
Notable
Infielder Sung-Mun Song is hitting in the batting cage, and the Padres hope he can play in a game by Monday. Song has not played since leaving a March 5 contest having aggravated a right oblique injury suffered in January. He almost certainly will begin the season on the injured list.
Reliever Jason Adam will make his Cactus League debut Friday with the plan being for him to pitch again in Monday’s spring finale. Adam, who had surgery to repair a torn quad tendon in September, appears on track to be on the opening-day roster.
With Tatis and Manny Machado back from the WBC, the Padres had all their regulars for the first time since Feb. 27. Jake Cronenworth batted leadoff for the seventh time this spring. Tatis was second, Jackson Merrill third and Machado fourth. Said manager Craig Stammen: “Croney has had a great spring training, and he’s looked really good at the top of the lineup when we’ve had him in there against right-handed pitching. So we’ll see how that looks with everybody in the lineup. Five days to kind of shake it out and see what we’ve got before the lineup actually counts.”
Back in action. pic.twitter.com/khhENeOZuO
— Kevin Acee (@sdutKevinAcee) March 19, 2026