Good morning,

If you have been following along here, you know the Padres never seemed upset with who they were during a 2-5 start to the season.

Now that they have done better than flipping that opening record, winning six of their past seven games, it might be coming into focus what sort of team they are.

You can read in my game story (here) from last night’s 5-2 victory over the Colorado Rockies about Gavin Sheets’ walk-off home run plus his other home run and Luis Campusano’s home run, as well as Walker Buehler’s finest start of the season.

We ought not draw too many more conclusions from the Padres’ second seven games than we did from their first seven.

Except that it probably means something that this is how they said it would go. They said they would be fine, and it seems they just might be.

Heck, their manager almost seemed to relish the early struggles, because he thought it could lead to outcomes like this.

“We’re in this together,” Craig Stammen said last Sunday in Boston, two victories into this seven-game run of much better baseball. “… The more that we can talk through things — talk through the bad, talk through the good, use adversity as our friend and use adversity to create perseverance and determination and stick with it and get back to it the next game, that’s hopefully what we’ve become as a team.”

Maybe.

Not to say that Jackson Merrill doesn’t need to stop chasing bad pitches and start getting more hits. But there he was leading off the ninth inning of a tie game last night by grounding a single the other way to through a hole on the left side of the infield. And then there was Manny Machado, whose best attribute this season is his eye, working an eight-pitch walk. And there was Xander Bogaerts, hitless for the first time in six days and not 24 hours removed from his walk-off grand slam, sending a long fly ball to right field to move Merrill to third.

And then there was Sheets, who has refined his eye and found his stroke after a slow start, hitting his second home run of the game.

“A bunch of good at-bats,” Stammen said.

Just like they have been taking the majority of most nights, even in losses.

They said again and again that they would be fine if they stuck with what they believed was the right approach offensively.

Sure, more than four hits before the ninth inning against the Rockies would be advisable.

But wins come in all shapes. This one had some strong starting pitching, excellent defense throughout and a pair of dominant relievers at the back end.

“The way we’ve been throwing the ball and playing defense has been really, really good,” Sheets said. “To reward the bullpen and starting pitching the last couple days and get these wins has been huge. We’ve kept the momentum on our side. Obviously, it shifts through the games, but we’ve been able to bounce back. Two huge wins.”

Efficiently fast Buehler

Walker Buehler has evolved into a different pitcher, using far more of his seven-pitch repertoire than he did before his second Tommy John surgery or even in the two seasons since returning from that procedure.

But he has been upfront about longing to throw his fastball more, similar to how he did while throwing in the high 90s and being a dominant starter for the Dodgers from 2018 through ‘21. In spring training, he compared the fastball to “the ex-girlfriend that you fell in love with and always will want her back.”

He didn’t quite return to his old ways last night while throwing six scoreless innings, but he did throw his four-seam fastball and sinker more frequently than he had in his first two starts. And he threw it harder, averaging 93.9 mph on both pitches and topping out at 95.1 on both.

“Listen, I want to throw fastballs,” he said last night. “I like throwing fastballs. That’s what I’ve done my whole life. The reality is, it’s not quite the same as it used to be. … We’ll stay on it and have a good week and hopefully recreate it.”

My game story details Buehler’s remarkable efficiency and command — no three-ball counts and 50 strikes among his 68 pitches — and how he maintained his delivery well beyond what he had been able to do in his previous two outings.

“A little more urgency,” Buehler said. “obviously, kind of mentally and (physically) struggling the first two. The coaching staff and I have been doing a lot of work and the strength staff and training staff, trying to get back to some things that I used to do really well. And I just think the throw is improving and the delivery is improving. So really good to get a good one under my belt.”

Estrada down

As suggested might happen in yesterday’s newsletter, reliever Jeremiah Estrada was placed on the 15-day injured list yesterday.

The reason for his being shut down is right elbow tendonitis, which had manifested in the velocity of his pitches being down markedly.

“It’s a little bit extra discomfort today,” Estrada said. “I (could) try to thug it out, as I always try to thug it out. I’ve been through a long journey full of pains, but I’m getting older too, so I gotta be smart with how I thug it out. … It hurts me to just step aside to have to do this. But then again, at the end of the day, it’s a decision I had to make, not only for the team but for my career itself. It hurts to have to be away from the field, but I’d rather come back stronger than have to go out there to test something out. ”

Estrada, whose average four-seam fastball was 97.9 mph in 2025, has not hit 97 mph since his second appearance of the season and was throwing the pitch as slow as 92.2 mph on Thursday.

“Last time I hit 92 I was a freshman in high school,” Estrada said. “… So there’s a little bit of a worry. Tested it out today, and wanted to feel it, be smart about it and pray about it, and I just feel like this is a decision we can do to help out not only just myself but the team and get better and work harder and get stronger.”

Stammen said Estrada might just be experiencing arm fatigue and that the Padres do not believe this “is a big deal.”

Estrada had, despite the dip in velocity and trouble commanding his splitter, put together a scoreless streak of five innings over five appearances before allowing two unearned runs in 1⅓ innings Thursay.

“I think it’s something that has probably manifested itself over the course of time, and now it finally got to the point where (Estrada didn’t) want to pitch through this anymore,” Stammen said. “… It’s a good time to be overly cautious, and give him a little breather, get him on the IL and get him right.”

Adam back

Jason Adam’s expected return off the injured list yesterday was the corresponding move to fill Estrada’s place on the roster (and in the bullpen).

Adam got into last night’s game in the eighth inning, taking over for Adrian Morejón in a tie game with runners on second and third and two outs. Adam ended the inning on a groundball out.

His return came about a month earlier than even the most optimistic projections when he ruptured the quad tendon in his left leg on Sept. 1.

“It was pretty cool moment,” Stammen said. “We were trying to give him a soft landing. That wasn’t quite the softest situation to get put into, but we needed him desperately. And he delivered just like he has ever since he’s been a Padre. One of the most trustworthy people in our whole organization. He put in so much work to get back to be there in that moment. And I was glad it went well for him. It was pretty cool to be able to hand him the ball.”

Adam, who has a 1.66 ERA in 92⅓ innings with the Padres, threw just five pitches.

“That’s the softness of the landing — only had to face one batter,” Adam said. “Glad I could get the job done and watch Gavin put one deep into the night.”

Again and again

Mason Miller worked a third consecutive day for just the second time in his career, and it was pretty much the same as the day before and the day before that and every time he has pitched since Aug. 6.

(Miller did take 13 pitches to strike out the three batters he faced in the ninth inning, three more than he threw Wednesday or Thursday. His fastball also topped out at 102.8 mph, down from his season-high 103.4 on a pitch Thursday. So he went from uber dominant to merely super dominant.)

Last night’s outing, his third in a row that did not have a save at stake, was Miller’s 27th in a row without allowing a run and extended his scoreless streak to 28⅔ innings.

Let’s update the chart of dominance:

Miller’s scoreles streak is the third longest in Padres history behind 30 innings by Randy Jones in 1980 and 33⅔ innings by Clay Meredith in 2006.

Just four of the 24 batters Miller has faced this season have put the ball in play. The breakdown: one hit, one walk, 19 strikeouts, one pop fly out, one groundout, one fly ball out. He is the only pitcher ever to face 24 or fewer batters and have 19 strikeouts in any seven-game span in a single season.

Even though it seems like Miller might never allow a run again, it is too early to begin thinking about his passing the record of 39 scoreless innings by a reliever or the overall consecutive scoreless innings streak of 59.

So it is certainly too soon to start seriously thinking about Miler becoming the first relief pitcher to win a Cy Young award since Eric Gagne, who converted all 55 of his save opportunities for the Dodgers in 2003.

But is there even such a thing as too early in today’s hot-take culture?

Stammen was asked what it would take for Miller to win the National League Cy Young.

“Some of the other starting pitchers can’t have great seasons,” he said. “They just have somewhat average seasons, and it gives an opportunity for a reliever to kind of sneak in there and grab that Cy Young. Or if you do what Mason is doing so far and do that for a full season? It’s definitely a possibility.”

Nothing says Miller can’t win both, but this is the first year of the Relief Pitcher of the Year award. That will be voted on by baseball writers along with Cy Young, MVP, Manager of the Year and Rookie of the Year awards. The reliever award was created in the interest of relievers not being left out since it was considered virtually impossible for one of them to win the Cy Young again.

Killing him (mostly) softly

Morejón surrendered two runs in last night’s eighth inning and has yielded nine runs in six games this season. He did not allow his ninth run until his 22nd game last season.

Last night was fairly typical of his season, as it began with Brenton Doyle beating out a 53 mph grounder toward third base. Doyle then advanced to second on a broken-bat groundout and got to third on another groundout. A rocketed single by Hunter Goodman and medium-hard single by Tyler Freeman drove in the runs.

But that inning probably does not go anywhere without Doyle’s dribbler.

“We’re racking our brains about it,” Stammen said. “He’s throwing 100 mph, and they’re getting a bunch of singles off of him. It’s not like he’s giving up slug, and they’re not hitting the ball hard. … A little bit of bad luck, and a little bit of baseball humbling somebody a little bit and letting you know it’s a tough game. Not that he’s arrogant about it or anything, but sometimes baseball just does that to you and makes you dig a little deeper and see how tough you are. And I think Adrian is pretty tough and can handle this.”

Hard luck

Four more hard hits, four more outs for Fernando Tatis Jr.

He is now batting .189 (10-for-53) with a .519 OPS, the worst numbers he has ever had beyond the 12th game of a season. He has yet to hit a home run, something he had never gone more than five games into a season without doing.

He is batting .240 (6-for-25) on his hard-hit balls, 225 points below the MLB average.

Tatis’ 18 balls in play at 100 mph or harder, including three last night, are tied for third most in the majors. He is 5-for-11 (.454) with a sacrifice fly on those balls, which is 117 points lower than the MLB average.

“Obviously, we want better numbers or whatever,” Tatis said. “But I’ve been playing some good baseball — playing defense, offense, hitting the ball hard to every part of the field. But it looks like the baseball gods are really mad at me right now. It’s all right, I’ll take it. We’ve got five more months of baseball, and I’m ready for it. I’m really prepared, and I have all the confidence in the world that it’s going to turn around.

“You get frustrated, obviously. But at the same time, you know you’re doing the right thing. So you gotta stay confident. You gotta stay in the game — go out there and compete with your teammates and just find a way to win this really hard game of baseball.”

Another rough one

A night after home plate umpire Nic Lentz had calls overturned on seven of 10 ABS challenges, Hunter Wendelstedt had nine calls overturned on 11 challenges.

That is the most overturned calls an umpire has had in this first season of the ABS system.

Wendelstedt, who has been an MLB umpire since 1998, was clearly perturbed.

“I think the umpires are getting used to the new strike zone, and so are the players,” Stammen said. “We’re going to see games like that, where you’ve got an umpire that’s been behind the plate for a really long time. He has been able to call his own zone, and now he’s forced to call a zone that’s not his, and that’s going to be tough for all those umpires. You’ve got to give them a little bit of grace in that process too. They’re being shown up on the scoreboard. It’s not a great look for them sometimes. But we’ve got to understand that they’re going through a new thing also.”

The reality is that 252 pitches were thrown last night, and Wendelstedt made a call on 155 of them.

That doesn’t mean he got them all correct.

In fact, the Rockies were out of challenges in the ninth inning when Juan Mejia’s 3-2 pitch to Machado was clearly in the strike zone and called ball four.

Don’t see that every day

Something shocking happened last night that went unnoticed by most.

After taking a called strike that actually missed outside, Ramón Laureano took a small step back, quickly raised his right hand as if he was going to tap the top of his helmet to challenge and then stopped and sort of rubbed his palm against the side of his face.

It was sort of like when a junior goes to shake someone’s hand and then pulls back and says, “Psyche” while running his hand back across his hair. (At least that’s what we did in the 80s.)

Laureano glanced toward the Padres dugout where Stammen and everyone else standing nearby was laughing.

That is when Laureano, probably the most intense Padres player, cracked a smile.

Said Merrill: “I’ve never seen him smile in an at-bat before.”

Tidbits

  • The last time the Padres hit walk-off home runs in back-to-back games was June 11 and 12, 2024, against the Athletics. The first of those was by Kyle Higashioka off Scott Alexander. The second was by Merrill off A’s closer Mason Miller.
  • Could it be that the Padres’ slug, dormant since last season, is starting to awaken. They have homered in four consecutive games. Last night, they got their first two-homer inning and three-homer game and had a player homer twice in a game for the first time.
  • The Padres have lost a lead in four games this season and won three of those.
  • Sheets, who did not have a hit in his first 13 at-bats this season, is now batting .256 (11-for-43) and leads the Padres with four multi-hit games.
  • I wrote yesterday that Machado was 6-for-26 in an eight-game hitting streak. As was pointed out by readers, it would be impossible to have an eight-game hitting streak while getting six hits. Anyway, Machado’s ninth-inning walk extended his on-base streak to nine games. He is 6-for-29 (.207) with a .385 OBP in that span.
  • Campusano won his only ABS challenge of the game and is now 8-for-11 on the season.
  • Jake Cronenworth has been playing a pretty spectacular second base this season. It will be difficult, however, for any play he makes on purpose to top this accidental 4-6-3:

All right, that’s it for me.

There will be no newsletter after the next four games. I have to attend to a family matter and will return Thursday and be with you the rest of the way.

I will cover tonight’s game before leaving town, and Jeff Sanders will have the next four games covered. As always, there will be many stories on our Padres page.

Talk to you Friday.