Good morning from Pittsburgh,
The Core Four had a day.
One of their biggest ever.
Xander Bogaerts, Manny Machado, Jackson Merrill and Fernando Tatis Jr. combined for nine of the Padres’ 12 hits and had a hand in every one of the Padres’ runs in an 8-6 victory over the Boston Red Sox yesterday that clinched the team’s first series win.
Together, the four stars were 9-for-15 with two home runs, two doubles and two walks, six runs scored and six RBIs.
Machado drove in three runs with a homer and scored another time. Merrill hit an RBI single in the fourth inning, singled and scored in the fifth and hit a solo homer that served as the deciding run in the eighth. Tatis doubled and scored and drove in a run with a sacrifice fly.
Bogaerts reached base all four times he went to the plate (a double, two singles and a walk), breaking a streak of 19 at-bats without a hit while breaking out in the finale of his first series as a visitor at Fenway Park.
The Padres don’t try to hide the importance of their four stars.
As a video montage played on Petco Park’s gigantic video board shortly before every home game in the season-opening homestand, manager Craig Stammen’s voice is heard saying, “Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado, Jackson Merrill, Xander Bogaerts. We get the best out of them, there’s nothing we can’t do.”
Yeah.
Thing is, they haven’t been their best together all that often.
The four Padres’ position players locked up through at least 2033 and all with nine-figure contracts have played in just 159 games together. That is not even half the games they could have since Merrill made his debut on opening day in 2024.
So first, it is important they all remain healthy. Second, they need to play better at the same time more of the time.
Because the Padres are far more successful when they produce.
We all know that.
But just so we are clear, here are the numbers when Bogaerts, Machado, Merrill and Tatis …
The thing that stands out is how seldom those things have happened.
But they came through yesterday. You can read in my game story (here) about their contributions, as well as the kinda crazy things that happened throughout the game.
Taking it as it comes
In yesterday’s newsletter, we talked about how selective Machado has been at the plate and he talked about how he needed to stop missing so many pitches right over the plate.
In yesterday’s game, he saw only one pitch anywhere near the heart of the strike zone, a cutter he fouled off. And he swung at four of the eight pitches he saw outside the zone.
One of those, however, was a changeup well inside off the plate that he turned on and launched 365 feet and over the Green Monster for a two-run homer.
“I think my chase rate is gonna go up,” he said. “It’s a matter of what do you want?”
He did the Mash. He did the Monster Mash. pic.twitter.com/nJfLkkJzzy
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) April 5, 2026
Good with his feet
It is a compliment to Machado to think he might have had nefarious intent while trying to get back to first base on a pickoff attempt by Red Sox catcher Carlos Narváez in the fourth inning.
Machado’s baseball IQ is that high, and he is smooth enough to pull it off.
But he insisted his foot inadvertently kicked the ball on Narváez’s low throw. The ball went of Machado’s foot and into foul territory, allowing Machado to run to second and Merrill to third, putting them both in position to score on Nick Castellanos’ two-out single two batters later. (They would have anyway, since Bogaerts walked immediately before Castellanos was up.)
When judging for yourself, remember this video is in slow-motion:
Willson Contreras tried telling the umpire that Manny Machado intentionally kicked this ball into foul territory pic.twitter.com/2vOfKBYdqq
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) April 5, 2026
“He kind of got me by surprise there on that back pick,” Machado said. “I know (first baseman Willson) Contreras has been trying to do it all series. Kind of got me by surprise there. Saw the ball coming in, trying to jump out the way. And as I came down, I had perfect timing. I think I picked the wrong sport.
“I mean, it was perfect timing. Didn’t you see it? You didn’t see it? I literally just saw the videos like, I mean, it couldn’t be better than that. Literally, FC should probably sign me up.”
As a minority owner of San Diego FC, it seems Machado could just make a call.
Longtime connection
Machado gets booed everywhere.
They mean it in Boston.
The disdain there is more visceral because of a 2017 incident in which Machado slid hard past the bag and had his spike collide with the calf of beloved second baseman Dustin Pedroia. While Pedroia had knee issues before that, the slide is widely seen as contributing to the premature ending of his career.
You know who grew up loving the Red Sox and with Pedroia as his favorite player? Jackson Merrill.
“I saw him slide into my favorite player,” Merrill said when I asked him a couple springs ago about his recollections of that incident. “As a (14)-year-old kid, what am I supposed to think?”
But — and here is what makes it so rich and one of my favorite things about the fact Merrill and Machado are teammates — Merrill grew up near Baltimore while Machado was playing for the Orioles. And given the way Merrill plays baseball, it isn’t surprising he also had some grudging respect for Machado back in 2017.
“There’s a part of me that saw him slide into Pedroia and thought, ‘Wow. This guy plays hard,’” Merrill said. “That’s what I want in everybody. So that side of him, that made him a good guy in my eyes. He’s giving everything he’s got for his teammates. He may not have been my favorite, but screw it.”
Not quite there
Walker Buehler was again good for two innings yesterday. And then he lost it, same as in his first start six days earlier.
This time, he was unable to make it four innings, as he did last Monday. Or even a full three.
Left-hander Kyle Hart was brought on in Buehler’s place with the Red Sox having already scored three runs in the third. Hart inherited a runner on third base and gave up an RBI double before ending the inning, so Buehler was charged with four runs.
“I think we’re really on a pretty good path, the right track,” Buehler said. “The third inning, some of the new stuff we’re working on, it just wasn’t there.”
Buehler and pitching coach Ruben Niebla have been working on a new arm angle and delivery, as he figures out how to pitch differently and more effectively than he has the past two seasons with a low-90s fastball.
“By nature of doing new stuff for three or four days, I can hold it for a (while), and then it goes away,” Buehler said. “It’s just getting the new stuff into the throw. … I feel good about the first two innings. So net positive, I guess.”
Making do
Stammen had to navigate 6⅓ innings of a close game with one of his high-leverage relievers down.
“It was stressful,” Stammen said with a huge smile and a little chuckle. “Just trying to not screw it up.”
If you wanted to be mad at him again for how he deployed his pitchers yesterday, it is important to know left-hander Adrian Morejón was available only if the game got well into extra innings because he threw 29 pitches on Saturday.
Remember, too, that Jason Adam is on a rehab assignment.
So after Hart got yesterday’s game to the sixth, Bradgley Rodriguez got into a game to protect a lead for the first time this season. The 23-year-old right-hander worked a scoreless sixth before getting in trouble in the seventh.
With a runner on second and two left-handed batters due up, Stammen handed the ball to lefty Wandy Peralta, who promptly gave up back-to-back doubles that tied the game 6-6.
Peralta finished the sixth, and after Merrill’s homer got the lead back, Jeremiah Estrada breezed through the eighth in 13 pitches before Miller struck out the three batters he faced in the ninth for his fourth save.
This was the fourth game in which bullpen deployment was handled differently than it would have been if Adam was healthy. The Padres have won three of those games, but two involved lost leads along the way.
Adam, who generally works the eighth inning, was tied for the team lead with 65 appearances and was second in the major leagues with 30 holds when he got injured last season. His 1.66 ERA in 92 games (92 innings) since joining the Padres at the trade deadline in 2024 is lowest among all qualifying relievers.
Much like with his philosophy on who has been in the lineup from day to day early in the season, Stammen chooses to see the upside in Adam’s absence.
“It’s opportunities for other people to step up,” he said. “You’re going to make your team better by finding out who those guys are that you can trust late in the games. It’s a different way to use the bullpen without Jason Adam. When we get him back, will it be the same as what it’s been, or will it be a little bit different. He’s gonna not be probably 1,000% healthy when he gets back. He’s still coming off that (quad) injury and working his way back. But we feel good when we do get him back. We’ll have a pretty strong bullpen, like we already do.”
Adam, who had quad tendon surgery in September, is expected to be activated this week — either here Wednesday or Thursday at home.
New role
Castellanos has had quite a different start to a season than any in his career.
In each of the past nine seasons, he started all of his team’s first nine games. In 2016, he started eight of nine. In 2015, he started all nine. In 2014, his first full season in the major leagues, he started six of nine.
Yesterday, he started for just the fourth time in nine games — and at a third different position.
It was his first ever start at first base. On Wednesday, he made his first start in left field since 2022. His first two starts were as the Padres’ designated hitter.
“It’s been a new start,” he said. “… In a lot of ways, I feel like a rookie.”
The 34-year-old Castellanos has started fewer than 134 games just once (not counting the 2020 covid-shortened season) since 2014.
“I definitely am learning how to adjust my daily routine,” he said. “Because when I’ve been at my best is when, like, you just kind of fall into autopilot with the season and there’s not a lot of thinking that is involved. You wake up, you know what lies ahead. So learning how to navigate not knowing what your day is going to look like or what’s gonna be asked of you is an adjustment.”
Players who don’t start generally do more work before games on the field and in the cage. Castellanos, who is 3-for-16 with a double and a walk, is also having to split his prep time between the infield and outfield.
He has pinch-hit three times after doing so 26 times in his career before this season.
“I’m just here to do the best I can, to adjust to the role that I’m in,” he said. “The role that I’m in is, even though I’ve played a long time, this is the first time that I’m in a spot like this.”
Working it
We talked in yesterday’s newsletter about how Stammen is mixing and matching with the lineup and tinkering with the batting order early in the season.
And then he went out and made another significant change yesterday.
After Ramón Laureano batted second for the first time this season on Saturday, he was the Padres’ leadoff hitter yesterday with Tatis dropping a spot to second and Bogaerts dropping to sixth.
Ramon Laureano leading off in today’s #Padres lineup. Just the second time atop the order to start a game since 2022. pic.twitter.com/DRcoo5tNKn
— Jeff Sanders (@sdutSanders) April 5, 2026
Stammen has used four leadoff hitters, three different players hitting second and third, two cleanup hitters, three No.5 hitters, six different batters in the sixth spot, four guys to bat seventh, three guys in the eight hole and four different guys batting ninth.
Every team has used several lineups. But there are just a half-dozen or so teams to have jumbled their top three spots in the order as much as the Padres and/or used six players at any spot.
Sheets has it covered
An insurance run is nice even for a closer who began work yesterday having not allowed a run in 24⅔ innings.
Gavin Sheets furnished Miller with a two-run lead in the ninth by lacing a pinch-hit double to start the inning and then scampering ing to second on Laureano’s groundout in front of the mound, a feat Sheets accomplished by getting a big secondary lead and taking off as soon as Red Sox pitcher Zack Kelly threw to first.
Advancing to third allowed Sheets to score when Tatis came up next and hit a fly ball to deep right field.
The dash to third base was notable for the fact it continued to emphasize that the tight end-ish Sheets (6-foot-3, 235) looks more agile on defense and quicker on the bases early this season. He even stole a base Friday, putting him halfway to matching his career high set in 2024 and equaled last season.
“Just trained in the offseason,” he said. “Use (the running ability) a little bit more. Be aggressive. Pick spots. Just trying to help out in any way possible.”
Sheets, who began the season 0-for-13, ran his hitting streak to four games yesterday. Since getting his first hit of the season on Tuesday, he is 6-for-8 with three doubles.
That streak is cute compared to the 24 games dating to Aug. 6 since Miller allowed a run. Here are his numbers during the longest active scoreless streak (now 25⅔ innings) in the majors:
Tidbits
The other reclamation project in the rotation starts tonight in Pittsburgh. Germán Márquez is coming off a rough start in his Padres debut. But there might have been more to him allowing four runs in three innings than him just not being good. Jeff Sanders wrote (here) about that yesterday. Also in that story is a look at how the Padres catchers are balancing their offensive and defensive duties, and Jeff hustled out to the box seats atop the Green Monster to talk to the Padres fan who caught Machado’s homer.
Miller got his three strikeouts in 12 pitches yesterday after striking out three batters in 11 pitches on Saturday night.
Luis Campusano’s fifth-inning single was his second hit of the season. He batted once more and then was lifted for Sheets to hit against a right-hander. For the third time in Campusano’s four starts, Freddy Fermin finished the game behind the plate.
Tatis’ sacrifice fly was the Padres’ first this season. They have attempted one sacrifice bunt, but that was fouled off by Bryce Johnson.
Sheets’ double was the Padres’ first hit by a pinch-hitter. They are 1-for-8.
It rained for an inning yesterday but otherwise felt balmy in the mid-40s compared to the wind chill in the 30s the night before. Of the weekend weather, Machado said: “It was miserable.” Well, here is the forecast for the next three days in Pittsburgh:
Screenshot
All right, that’s it for me.
Talk to you tomorrow.