Good morning from my layover,
There might have been something like relief in the Padres’ clubhouse the past two days.
“That’s a great bounce back,” Fernando Tatis Jr. said yesterday.
But it was more like confirmation.
At full strength, the Padres are who they thought they were.
You can read (here) in my game story from yesterday’s 5-3 victory about how the Padres’ two-game sweep of the Giants came about and how it was so much like what they had been doing at the start of the season.
“We’re back to ourselves,” Machado said.
The return of Jason Heyward and Luis Arraez was an instantaneous reigniting of the Padres way of baseball.
Arraez, in particular.
Heyward was 2-for-4 with a double in the first game of the series and drew a walk while going 0-for-3 yesterday. The Padres spoke of missing his presence in the dugout over the nine games he missed with knee inflammation. He is a constant source of information and encouragement.
But Arraez is something else.
“He’s definitely a spark in this lineup,” Tatis said. “When he’s not out there, you can definitely feel it. And when he’s out there, you definitely see the difference.”
The Padres manufactured runs (scored without the benefit of a home run) in five different innings over the past two days. Arraez was involved in three of those.
It does not paint anything like a complete picture to pin wins to a single player. But the fact is, the Padres are 18-6 with Arraez in the starting lineup and 1-5 without him. (They are 8-2 with Jackson Merrill, 11-9 without him.)
“Arraez is tough at-bats and the energy,” Michael King said. “It’s a much more exciting team.”
WIth Arraez back in the No.2 hole, the Padres were empowered to do in these two games what good teams do. They did what they preach.
“There wasn’t a throwaway at-bat the whole series,” manager Mike Shildt said.
Just like it was confirmation for them last year to win 93 games in the first season they had a manager stressing “winning on the margins.” Just like it was confirmation to start this season 15-4 after an offseason of emphasizing their culture of unselfish and relentless baseball.
It was reassuring to be back to being the kind of team they appeared to be in the first two games they got a couple regulars off the injured list.
It’s not like it took an acclimation period. It was instantaneous.
Yesterday’s newsletter listed ways Tuesday’s game was practically identical to what they did when they started the season hotter than any other team.
And yesterday’s game brought more of the same.
Just starting
The Padres are undefeated against the toughest division in baseball.
They have played three games against the Rockies and two against the Giants.
That leaves a total of 37 games remaining against the Dodgers, Diamondbacks and Giants to try to claw as many victories as possible. (And 10 against the Rockies to try to feast as much as possible).
“I think we’re going to have a lot of really good NL West battles throughout the whole season,” King said. “It’s those tests that you’ve got to put your big boy pants on and play these guys. And I know we’re going to get them 11 more times throughout the year. So obviously, a good start. But you’ve got to make sure it lasts over the next 11 against them and then the 13 against the Dodgers and the 13 against the Diamondbacks.”
The games between the Padres and Giants were the first between any of the division’s four playoff contenders.
The Padres play three games at Colorado next week and then don’t face a divisional foe again until June 2-5 in San Francisco. The following week brings a run of seven games in 11 days against the Dodgers (three at home, four in Los Angeles) with three on the road against the Diamondbacks in between.
Their only NL West games in July are four at home against the Diamondbacks.
Of the 28 games the Padres play in August, 17 are against the Diamondbacks, Dodgers and Giants.
The Padres play three in Denver and four at Petco Park against the Rockies in September and finish the season with a three-game home series against the Diamondbacks.
“It’s gonna be rough,” Tatis said. “We have really good teams out there. They came out the gate hot, just like us. They have played really good baseball — good pitching, defense. So the best baseball being played is on this side.”
Leading men
It is within the occasionally long, meandering answers by Shildt that you can, if you are listening, come to appreciate why the Padres have evolved into a team that can win in so many ways.
It is in his little asides that you can grasp where the margins are.
“Guys were grinding their tails off and ran the bases smart,” Shildt said at one point yesterday in the middle of one of those soliloquies in which he seems to mention half the roster. “Sheets’ ability to get a good jump on that ball that was topped by Iglesias and beats that force, sets up (Tyler Wade) for the first RBI. So there’s a lot of real positive things that take place that end up giving you the best chance to shake hands at the end of the game. And this club knows what that looks like.”
He referred to Sheets getting a 9½ foot primary lead off first base in the second inning, adding four feet to that as Giants pitcher Landen Roup went into his windup and then taking off on the pitch, allowing him to go into second standing up on Iglesias’ grounder to third base. So Sheets was at second base with two outs when Wade lined a ball into shallow right field.
And it was Sheets’ lead of more than 17 feet off second base, with a secondary lead that stretched to nearly 18 feet, that set him up to score on Wade’s hit.
Sheets is not slow. His 27.3 feet per second sprint speed on his dash home was on the high end of average. But it was the lead that was going to be the difference, as he was going to beat the throw from right fielder Mike Yastrzemski even if it had not been wide.
And it is typical of what the Padres do regularly.
They talk internally about leads as much as they do almost any facet of the game. When they mention the “running game,” leads are held in essentially the same regard as a stolen base.
While leads often manifest in an advantage such as it did with Sheets yesterday, the Padres’ main purpose in pushing the envelope with leads is to keep constant pressure on opposing pitchers and catchers.
“Stolen bases is the sexy play,” said David Macias, the Padres first base and baserunning coach. “It’s what you see on the highlights. We’re thinking more like team plays, which is leads. One through nine, the idea is you can get a really strong lead to where that catcher, that pitching coach, at the end of the game they’re like relieved because they just don’t know. Because these guys are getting good leads. It’s pressure. It’s an identity play for us.”
Sinking feeling
Once again, King mixed up what he led with.
Yesterday, he threw his sinker more than any of his other four pitches. He has not thrown the same pitch the most in consecutive starts all season.
That it would be the sinker yesterday was not surprising considering it was moving like this:
Michael King, Unfair 94mph Two Seamer. 😳
2 FEET of Run! pic.twitter.com/wLrrZqJaNE
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 30, 2025
An errant sinker that hit Tyler Fitzgerald with one out in the sixth was the beginning of King’s undoing, as Fitzgerald ended up scoring the only run against King on Jung Hoo Lee’s single on a sinker.
But before he was pulled with two outs in the sixth, King ended eight of his outs, including four of his six strikeouts, with a sinker.
The plan was to go heavy with his four-seam fastball trying to get the Giants, who put the ball in the air a lot, to pop up. The sinker was supposed to be a complementary pitch to keep the hitters off-balance and then go with a fastball above the bat.
“But there (were) a ton of times on the scouting report that Diaz and I were saying, like, we don’t want to go to a sinker here but then realize it’s been a very good pitch,” King said. “Command of it has been good — besides the hit by pitch to Fitzgerald. Besides that, it’s been a nice get-back-in-the-count or get 0-1 without throwing the pitches that I want to actually get the hitters out with.”
His primary pitch has been the sinker in three games, the changeup in one, the four-seam fastball in one, the sweeper in one and the four-seam and change tied for most in one.
King’s 2.09 ERA ranks fifth in the National League. His .191 average allowed is sixth.
Here is what he is getting people out with:
Starry day
Machado and Heyward made plays that stymied potential rallies by the Giants yesterday.
With runners at first and third with one out in the sixth inning, Willy Adamas sent a grounder toward the hole on the left side that Machado dove to stop and then, from his back, fired to second base for the force out.
Machado'd | verb
Definition: see below ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/SD6Y74dI
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) April 30, 2025
With one out and a runner at first base in the eighth inning, with Jason Adam already having allowed a solo homer that got the Giants to 5-3, Lee sent a fly ball to shallow left field that tailed toward the line. Heyward was playing straight up and had to run 98 feet and slide another couple to make the catch just above the ground. That meant the inning ended when Adam struck out Matt Chapman.
What a play, J-Hey! pic.twitter.com/89uouJB44n
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) April 30, 2025
Machado dove to stop a grounder and threw across the diamond to get the first out of the second inning as well. Both of his plays and Heyward’s got a “Star” hung out of the radio booth by Tony Gwynn Jr.
It is not known how many times there have been three stars hung in a game in the 40 years since Hall of Fame broadcaster Jerry Coleman’s catchphrase — “You can hang a star on that baby!” — was first accompanied by an actual star being dangled from the booth.
Let me just say that there is, at least from my vantage point, a little chink in the previously undented armor of Dave Marcus, who has produced Padres radio broadcasts since 1994. I thought this would be something he kept track of. But that is not the case.
Wade, front and center
Much as he did at the start of last season filling in for Machado at third base, Wade has done his part as the surrogate Merrill.
He has earned his spot on the team.
Said Shildt: “This is a guy that is a real part of our fabric.”.
But Wade might have just three games left as the Padres’ starting center fielder. Might be less.
Shildt confirmed that Jackson Merrill and Brandon Lockridge are returning from their respective hamstring strains during the road trip.
“They’re not all on equal footing, but they’re all close to where they’re at,” Shildt said. “… We’ll see them … early in the road trip, Pittsburgh, and then possibly New York on the second side of it.”
Multiple sources have said the target for Merrill’s return is Monday in New York. Lockridge has been about a day ahead of Merrill in his recovery so far.
Wade could not be expected to match Merrill’s power or propensity for the big moment. That is not what he was being asked to do.
But since taking over as the everyday center fielder, Wade is batting .289 with a .419 on-base percentage. (The latter is four points better than Merrill’s OBP.)
In his 13 starts (12 in center field) the Padres are 6-7
“Just the start that this team got off to in the beginning,” said Wade, who was 1-for-3 with a walk yesterday. “I just wanted to keep that going. And so, obviously, some guys went down, and you never want that to happen. But kind of just keeping everything afloat and doing my thing and playing my brand of baseball. That’s all I really wanted to do.”
Tidbits
- The Padres’ 19-11 start matches the 2022 and 2010 clubs for the second-best 30-game starts in franchise history. The 1998 team, which won 98 games and went to the World Series, began 21-9. The Padres won 89 games in 2022 and 90 games in 2010.
- Tatis followed up his 0-for-5 on Tuesday by going 3-for-4 yesterday. He still has not gone hitless in consecutive games this season. His .345 batting average leads the NL, and his 1.011 OPS is second to the Mets’ Pete Alonso (1.131).
- Adam’s ERA has crept above 1.00 for the first time this season. When he allowed his third run (second earned) of the season yesterday, his ERA ballooned from 0.56 to 1.06 over 16 appearances (17 innings). In 43 games with the Padres since being acquired at last season’s trade deadline, Adam has a 1.03 ERA (five runs in 43⅔ innings). Adam did earn his league-leading 11th hold yesterday.
- The Padres bullpen has allowed at least one earned run in three consecutive games and a total of eight earned runs in the past six games. And its 1.77 ERA is still tops in the major leagues, 0.64 points better than the second-place Giants. Padres relievers also lead MLB with a 0.96 WHIP. They have allowed 29.4% of their inherited runners (10-of-34) to score, which ranks 10th among all bullpens.
- Give Gavin Sheets credit for recognizing he was pressing. After a stretch of eight games in which he chased at a 44% rate, Sheets has chased three of the 22 pitches he saw outside the zone the past two days. He was 0-for-4 but walked three times, was hit by a pitch and scored three runs.
- With Heyward and Arraez back, the Padres fielded the same starting lineup both games of the series. It was the first time they had an identical lineup in back-to-back games since April 11 and 12, a span of 14 games with a different lineup.
- So, in the two games since Shildt essentially said offense is an afterthought when considering the performance of Padres catchers, Elias Díaz is 4-for-8. He has his batting average up to .214 (12-for-56) and is tied with Machado and Jake Cronenworth for fifth on the team with two home runs.
- Díaz’s homer in the third inning yesterday was just the 11th in the majors this season hit with a launch angle of 19 degrees or lower. The Padres have an MLB-high three home runs hit at 20 degrees or lower — one each at 20 degrees by Tatis and Xander Bogaerts and the one by Diaz.
Elias Díaz – San Diego Padres (2)
pic.twitter.com/qonVarwQDu— MLB HR Videos (@MLBHRVideos) April 30, 2025
All right, that’s it for me. I have to catch a plane. No game today, so no newsletter tomorrow.
I will have a story on our Padres page later today on Boagerts’ struggles and his work to build on a hopeful couple days.
Talk to you Saturday.
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