BOSTON — A little more than a week into the season, the Padres have two quality starts out of their rotation.
They both belong to Randy Vásquez.
The 27-year-old Dominican continued his ascension with six innings of one-run ball in the Padres’ 3-2 win over the Red Sox in front of a sellout crowd at Fenway Park. Vásquez didn’t factor in the decision after a defensive miscue led to the bullpen briefly losing the lead, but the emerging starting pitcher danced in and out of trouble in keeping the Red Sox at bay on an evening in which the wind chill dropped the temperature into the high 20s.
“Outside of letting a few leadoff hits go, he was really good tonight,” Padres manager Craig Stammen said. “Pitched his tail off and finished the inning, finished the game in that sixth inning, going through (Jarren) Duran, (Willson) Contreras and (Wilyer) Abreu, which were probably their three hottest hitters right now. So Randy getting another six innings is big for us, and he just continues his ascent into being a viable No. 3 starter for us.”
Consider the start to the season a continuation of the steps forward that Vásquez took last year.
Not in the best shape when he reported to camp last year, Vásquez poured himself into the team-tailored strength and conditioning program and was touching 98 mph while posting a 2.53 ERA over his final four starts of 2025. Vásquez showed he’d harnessed those gains throughout spring in securing the No. 3 spot in the rotation behind Nick Pivetta and Michael King and pitched the team to its first win of the season last weekend.
A quality effort on Saturday at Fenway Park quietly extended Vásquez’s run to two or fewer earned runs in seven of his last eight games (2.61 ERA) and 11 of his last 13 (3.23 ERA).
Saturday’s quality start was quite a bit more delicate than his last, too.
The Padres never led by more than one while Vásquez was in the game and he had traffic in all but his first and sixth innings of work. The first run he allowed crossed the plate after Vásquez allowed a leadoff single to Contreras and walked Abreu, but even that was a small win as Vásquez limited the damage to a game-tying sacrifice fly from Eastlake High School grad Marcelo Mayer.
Catcher Freddy Fermin helped Vásquez out of the second inning by throwing out Ceddanne Rafaela trying to steal second after his leadoff single and a double-play helped Vásquez get out of the fourth inning after Duran’s leadoff single.
Abreu and Caleb Durbin followed with a pair of two-out singles, but Vásquez ended the inning with a strikeout of Mayer on a changeup, one of just three punchouts in the game and one of his 14 whiffs. He struck out eight in six shutout innings two-hit ball in a quality start of a different kind in his first start of the season.
Still, it all boils down to the same concept.
“I’m just literally trying to execute one pitch at a time,” Vásquez said through interpreter Pedro Gutierrerez. “Concentrating whether the cutter has been working a lot, sweeper, even my curveball. So it’s just like trying to execute one pitch at a time, and the results have been positive.”
The next inning, Roman Anthony pulled a two-out triple to right and left-hander Kyle Hart began to warm up for a potential matchup with the left-handed-hitting Duran. But Vásquez ended the fifth with a groundout that earned him a chance at the sixth inning.
He went on to retire the side in order in the next inning before finally handing the ball to the bullpen after 83 pitches, 57 of them strikes.
“You trust Randy,” Stammen said.
Which is music to Vásquez’s ears after he’d been pulled in similar situations throughout his first two years with the Padres.
“It means a lot to me,” Vásquez said. “I’m just thankful, grateful to my manager, who allows me to stay in the game, execute my pitches, and it just means a lot that I’m able to contribute.”