Slugless in San Diego: Padres still seeking bop after slow start

SAN DIEGO -- The Padres dropped Monday’s series opener against the Giants, 3-2, at Petco Park. Jackson Merrill launched a two-run homer in the ninth to account for the entirety of the offense -- but otherwise, there wasn’t much to quell any concerns about the back of the rotation and the team’s inability to slug.

Here’s some reaction, as the Padres fell to 1-3, their worst four-game start to a season since 2018 (when they were 0-4):

The search for slug continues

Luis Arraez returned to San Diego on Monday night. Fifteen minutes before first pitch, the Padres greeted him with a message of thanks on their videoboard, and he received a partial standing ovation from the crowd.

Over the winter, the Padres had at least some interest in bringing back Arraez. They ultimately opted to allocate their resources elsewhere. His departure was viewed as a philosophical shift. San Diego made moves this winter with the aim of tapping into more power than last season.

That may still come. It’s March 30. But through four games, it’s been the same refrain about the Padres’ offense.

They’ve scored nine times across those four games. The biggest culprit behind that lack of offense is, once again, the lack of slug. The Padres have just six extra-base hits through those four games, including two apiece from Ramón Laureano and Merrill.

"One way or another, it’s going to start coming,” Merrill said. “Keep putting up good, consistent at-bats, it’s going to flow. We’re going to get some big hits. It’s going to start going.”

The sample is small. And the Padres faced some highly accomplished starting pitchers in their opening series against the Tigers. But Monday’s performance against Giants righty Landen Roupp was a disappointing one.

"Today was definitely a struggle,” said manager Craig Stammen. “We didn’t hit too many as hard as we had in the previous three games. But that guy, he threw the ball good tonight. Pitching in the big leagues is tough. We’ve got to be able to battle every single day, scratch a few runs across.”

Buehler’s shaky debut

There was no rotation spot promised to Walker Buehler when he signed with San Diego in February. Similarly, there’s no rotation spot guaranteed to Buehler if he struggles this season.

The Padres have Joe Musgrove, Griffin Canning and Matt Waldron on the way back from various injuries. In the meantime, Buehler outperformed a handful of other veterans to win one of two available spots at the back of the rotation.

His Padres debut wasn’t especially sharp. Buehler allowed a solo homer to Harrison Bader in the third, then two more runs in the fourth on two-out hits from Patrick Bailey and Casey Schmitt.

Buehler allowed three runs on five hits and two walks over four innings. He showed flashes of quality. This was by no means a complete dud. But as the game wore on, Buehler began making mistakes, and the Giants made him pay.

"There’s some positives to take out of it,” Buehler said. “But at the end of the day, I’ve got to throw strikes and get into better counts.”

Here’s the reality of the Padres’ situation at the back of their rotation, where Buehler and Germán Márquez won the final two spots: Both have long track records of success. But neither has been the same since undergoing Tommy John surgery (Buehler in 2022 and Márquez in ‘23).

If the Padres get quality contributions from even one of those two, they’ll chalk it up as a victory. In the meantime, there might be rotation help on the way.

Bullpen bright spot

Aside from a blip from Jeremiah Estrada on Friday night, the Padres’ bullpen has mostly come as advertised this season. After Buehler’s short start Monday, that ‘pen once again expertly did its job. Wandy Peralta pitched a scoreless fifth before David Morgan and Ron Marinaccio each covered two scoreless innings, keeping the game within reach.

It was an excellent display from a trio of relievers who all qualify as low-to-medium leverage. Much has been made about the elite back-end arms in the Padres’ bullpen -- Mason Miller and Adrian Morejon to name a couple. But the depth is nearly as impressive.

"We’ve got a really good bullpen top to bottom,” Stammen said. “It doesn’t matter who we throw, they’ve basically been putting up zeros.”

As a result of that depth, the Padres will have their high-leverage arms completely fresh for the rest of the series. And they still managed to keep Monday's game within striking distance. Their offense couldn’t quite capitalize.