The San Diego Padres needed a win like Wednesday afternoon’s.
As the Padres bludgeoned the San Francisco Giants, 7-1, to salvage the series finale, they finally put together an offense that matched what it looks like on paper.
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The club (after only recording nine extra-base hits going into Wednesday’s contest) had five XBH, including four doubles and Ramón Laureano’s, club-leading, second home run of the year.
In addition, starter Nick Pivetta put his Opening Day jitters behind him, striking out eight Giants batters over five innings. The scoreless performance earned him his first win of the 2026 season.
The Friar Faithful hopes that it’s a sign of things to come and not a fluke. The test of that will come in this weekend’s road series against the Boston Red Sox.
Taking the mound
Sonny Gray (BOS) v. Michael King (SD)
After being traded from the St. Louis Cardinals earlier this offseason, Gray hopes to factor as an anchor for a dominant Boston rotation. Whether or not that’s the case remains to be seen.
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He struggled in his first outing with the Sox, allowing three runs on six hits across only four innings pitched. It was a rough outing, needing 80 pitches to get through it.
If Gray can’t solve a Padres’ offense that seems to have finally unlocked some slug, Boston will have trouble in a hurry.
King, on the other hand, had a memorable first outing. He pitched five vintage innings that stifled a Detroit Tigers’ lineup that was decimating Nick Pivetta only a day earlier.
If he can do the same to a Sox group that has mostly underwhelmed offensively, the Friars will easily overtake Boston.
Batter up!
With San Diego facing a right-hander in Boston starter Gray, skipper Craig Stammen will likely use a similar lineup to Wednesday’s game against San Francisco.
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That being said, putting Nick Castellanos in left field over Laureano on Tuesday night showed Stammen favors career matchups against a pitcher over who has a hot bat.
With that in mind, the lineup will probably look like this:
Almost all of those Padres have a batting average above .300 against Gray, with the lone exception being Campusano (no at-bats).
Machado has had a rough go of it lately and is looking for some slug. He could find it today against Gray (career .343 average against, 35 ABs).
Tatis is 3-for-3 in his career versus Gray and looks to do the same as Machado after starting the season 5-for-21.
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Andujar and Castellanos will look to rack up some hits with their bench bats starting the season cold. They have a 2.334 (3 ABs) and .941 OPS (20 ABs), respectively, when facing Gray.
Relief corps
For a guy who was a relief pitcher, Stammen’s bullpen strategy has been… odd.
On Wednesday, Jeremiah Estrada came out and pitched a clean sixth inning before high-leverage lefty Adrian Morejon came in for the seventh.
Morejon wasn’t bad by any means, but he wasn’t his dominant self.
After giving up a leadoff double to former teammate Luis Arraez, he got two outs before surrendering a single to Harrison Bader, giving the Giants their lone run of the game.
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He stopped the bleeding there but surprisingly returned in the eighth after not looking particularly sharp.
Normally, that eighth inning would be set-up man Jason Adam’s. But with him still rehabbing his way back, Morejon got the call.
He got two outs before allowing a walk to Rafael Devers. Stammen went to closer Mason Miller for the final four outs.
Miller dazzled, immediately flying out Heliot Ramos. He returned in the ninth and got all three outs by way of the K.
With the travel day, all of the relievers are available. But if King falters early, it’s likely Stammen turns to Ron Marinaccio or Wandy Peralta to cover multiple innings.
