Good morning,
After Nick Pivetta allowed six runs in three innings in the season opener, we talked about that performance doing nothing to alleviate concerns about the rotation.
So what are we to make of the offense four games in?
It is way (way!) too early to be alarmed. That is especially true since the Padres saw arguably the two best left-handed starters in the major leagues the first two games. They are playing at Petco Park, which has yielded the same number of home runs (two) and one fewer double (three) to the Detroit Tigers and San Francisco Giants as it has to the Padres.
But that doesn’t change the horrible numbers I wrote about in my game story (here) from last night’s 3-2 loss to the Giants.
Through 30 batters last night, the Padres had two singles and three walks. Then Jackson Merrill hit a two-run homer with two outs in the ninth inning to make sure the Padres were not shut out at Petco Park for the first time in 56 games.
Xander Bogaerts followed by swinging at a 2-1 pitch that maybe nicked the top of the strike zone and grounded out to shortstop to end the game.
The Padres finished with three hits. They hit just five balls hard after putting 31 balls in play at 95 mph or harder over the first three games.
They chased 42% of the pitches they saw outside the strike zone, bringing their season total to nearly 36%, which is in the bottom five in MLB.
They were 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position. Their .192 batting average with runners in scoring position ranks 23rd in MLB. Their 29 plate appearances in that circumstance rank 24th.
“I feel like we’re hitting the ball on the screws at times, and we’re not getting rewarded for it,” manager Craig Stammen said. “That maximizes when we have a few empty at-bats also. We just need some of those hard hit balls to fall in. Today was definitely a struggle. We didn’t hit too many as hard as we had in the previous three games. But (Giants starter Landen Roupp) threw the ball good tonight. You know, pitching in the big leagues is tough. We’ve got to be able to battle every single day and scratch a few runs across.”
The Buehler file
My game story also focused on Walker Buehler’s Padres debut, which started magnificently and ended with him allowing three runs in four innings.
“Overall, solid,” Stammen said. “Not spectacular.”
Overall, fairly accurate assessment. Solid might be a tad generous. But Buehler had more than a few good moments.
After two perfect and efficient innings, he hung a curveball to Harrison Bader, the first batter in the third, and had it hit over the left field wall.
In the fourth, Matt Chapman scooted a 107 mph grounder under second baseman Jake Cronenworth’s glove with one out and went to second base on a walk by Jung Hoo Lee.
After Bader popped up the next pitch for the second out, Patrick Bailey reached out for a changeup well off the plate to send a soft liner into left field to bring in the first run. Casey Schmitt’s RBI single could also be considered well-placed, but it was grounded up the middle at 102 mph.
“Obviously some good swings,” Buehler said. “But outside of the Bader one, and Chapman hit the ball all right — other than that, I think it was … singles and kind of seeing eye.”
Still, he knew the problem was that he stopped getting ahead. He threw a first-pitch strike and/or was ahead 0-2 or 1-2 to all six batters he faced in the first two innings. Either of those things happened against just four of the next 12 batters he faced.
“When you’re in good counts, you get good luck, and when you’re in bad counts, you don’t,” he said. “And that’s 100% within my control. So … I’ve got to be better than that.”
As for his retooled repertoire, Buehler continued his evolution that accelerated mid-spring. He threw his four-seam fastball 11 times among his 72 pitches (15%). That is 10 percentage points less than he used it last season. His cutter (18 times) was his most frequent pitch, but it was closely followed by his changeup. The 17 times he threw it accounted for 24% of his pitches, 18 percentage points higher than its usage ‘25. He threw it just once to a right-handed batter, but he did so just six times all last season. His fastball averaged 93.4 mph, down from 94 mph last season. He got five strikes with it, none on misses.
“Some throws I made were really good and kind of right where I want to be,” he said. “But again, they kind of got to be over that little white thing that’s in front of you. And when they’re not, you know, these are major league hitters, and they’re at least going to put the ball in play, and they know how to get hits. So, you know, all in all, some good and some bad.”
Doing their job
David Morgan pitched for the third time in the Padres’ four games.
Last night was the second time he entered a game with the Padres trailing by three runs. The other time he pitched, they were down six.
That’s how it is going for the Padres so far. Their vaunted bullpen slipped up in the second game of the season but has otherwise been mostly outstanding, if mostly in low leverage opportunities.
Morgan has yet to allow a run in four innings. Wandy Peralta, who was part of Friday’s eighth-inning meltdown, worked a 1-2-3 inning last night in his third appearance. Ron Marinaccio retired all six batters he faced last night while covering the final two innings.
A bullpen working without a lead is basically just filling innings. But there is an upside to that. It saves the back-end arms.
“We’ve got a really good bullpen, top to bottom,” Stammen said. “… It’s nice for me to be able to rely on about anybody down there, and going forward these next two games before (Thursday’s) off day, we can be a little more aggressive with some of our high-leverage guys and be able to get them into games.”
Catcher rotation
Luis Campusano is 0-for-5 and has been lifted for a pinch-hitter in both of his starts this season.
With a groundout to shortstop and a groundout to third base in his two at-bats last night, Campusano remains hitless in 26 at-bats since the start of last season, and all but one of his outs have come on a strikeout or a grounder to the left side.
Freddy Fermin will start the next two days.
The catching rotation is still a work in progress and subject to alterations, but it does seem a 60/40 split in playing time is likely.
The only thing set for now is that Fermin will catch Nick Pivetta and Campusano will catch Michael King.
Fermin and Germán Márquez, who are both Venezuelan, have a good rapport, and Fermin will catch him tonight. Pivetta starts tomorrow.
So if he was not going to go a week between starts, Campusano essentially had to be behind the plate last night.
Beyond the pairings with Pivetta and King, who catches what days will depend largely on the schedule, whether a catcher is particularly hot or cold and whether a particularly good working relationship develops between a certain starter and catcher.
Next …
The Padres’ second reclamation project will take the mound tonight.
Márquez, once among the better starting pitchers in the National League, enters 2026 with a 6.70 ERA in 27 starts (130 innings) since he returned from 2023 Tommy John surgery.
Among the changes he made this spring, the most significant is he moved to the first-base side of the rubber.
The move is the same one Pivetta did at pitching coach Ruben Niebla’s behest when Pivetta signed with the Padres before last season. Márquez described feeling like he is going more toward the plate and alters what his curveball and fastball look like approaching the plate, similar to Pivetta. But Márquez and Niebla also explained that Márquez’s hips were stiff and not allowing his body to get in the proper spot.
“That was something I had in my mind,” Márquez said. “But Ruben confirmed I have to move.”
Márquez pitched from the first-base side early in his career.
“I don’t know why I moved,” he said. “But I am way more comfortable now.”
He moved to the other side of the rubber in his third spring start, and things didn’t go well at all. But after surrendering six runs in 1⅔ innings that night, he gave up four runs in over 9⅔ innings in his final two Cactus League outings.
They’re coming
We have already seen what the Padres’ new City Connect jerseys look like, thanks to leaked photos and schematics.
The official unveiling will be April 9 with the team wearing the new uniforms the next night against the Rockies. The Padres will wear the new City City Connects for Friday night home games, same as the old ones.
It’s for our new City Connects pic.twitter.com/iApER7shiY
— PaeperBoi (@PaeperBoi) March 27, 2026
In the zone
Cronenworth made one of the finer plays a second baseman could make to take a single away from Chapman in the second inning.
Cronenworth was on the dirt practically at second base and sprinted back and across onto the grass more than halfway to first, where he slid and fielded the ball, made a quick transfer and threw to first base while still on his knees and falling backward.
You can hit it anywhere, but you can’t hit it to the Crone Zone. pic.twitter.com/bP7X1wV7AE
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) March 31, 2026
Tidbits
Merrill, who has had more than half his at-bats come against lefties, is batting .200 (3-for-15). But the left-handed hitter leads the Padres in RBIs (three) and is tied with Ramón Leaureano for the lead in extra-base hits (two) and home runs (one).
The last time the Padres were shut out at home was May 31.Their 56 games not being held scoreless at home is the second-longest active streak in MLB behind the Toronto Blue Jays’ 106.
Miguel Andujar was signed in the offseason to a one-year deal that guarantees him $4 million almost exclusively for the fact he has hit .397 with a .990 OPS against lefties over the past two seasons. He grounded out as a pinch-hitter against left-hander Brett Matt Gage last night and is 1-for-6 against lefties this season. (He began last season 2-for-9 against left-handers.)
Laureano walked last night and is the only Padres player to have reached base in all four games.
Morgan has not allowed a run at Petco Park in his last 15 appearances. That scoreless streak is 16⅔ innings dating to July 12.
Jeff Sanders wrote (here) about Luis Arraez’s thoughts on his return to San Diego. Also in Jeff’s notebook is an update on Jason Adam.
Tom Krasovic wrote (here) about the first-time managers going against each other in this series.
After a bad strike call cost the Padres a walk in the ninth inning of their season-ending loss in Game 3 of the Wild Card Series last year, Manny Machado was asked about the upcoming implementation of the ABS challenge system. He declared he would not be using it, because he was usually wrong when he questioned called strikes. But there he was challenging a strike call last night. And he got it right. The pitch was inside by a couple inches. Machado confirmed after the game he will only be be challenging “obvious” calls.
All right, that’s it for me.
No game today. Talk to you Tuesday.