NEW YORK -- Chris Paddack is 23. He's a rookie. He'd only made seven starts at Double-A before cracking the Padres’ rotation this spring.

Sure, Paddack’s first month in the big leagues was spectacular. But things weren’t always going to play out so smoothly. With the Padres’ 7-0 loss to the Yankees at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday afternoon, the brazen right-hander encountered another roadblock on another big stage.

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“Am I frustrated? Obviously,” Paddack said. “I came up short. I beat myself.”

Paddack doesn’t often leave changeups with no movement in the middle of the strike zone. But he did that to the first batter he faced. DJ LeMahieu hit it out.

Paddack doesn’t often lose command of his pinpoint fastball. But he did that to the second batter he faced. Luke Voit hit it out.

Clearly, the outspoken Paddack has begun to develop a reputation, and the Yankees were more than eager to put a dent into it. They needed only two batters to do so.

“The guys were excited coming in today, an opportunity to face this guy that’s kind of taken the league by storm,” said Yankees skipper Aaron Boone. “He is going to be a great pitcher. So I think they were excited, and they had a really good game plan.”

“The guy pretty much went from high [Class] A, Double-A to the show,” Voit said. "It’s the big leagues. It’s hard to pitch here. … Credit, you’ve got good stuff. But we had a good game plan.”

New York hitters took Paddack deep three times, and they tagged him for four earned runs on six hits -- both career highs. He got better as the day progressed, but by then it was too late.

The Padres went hitless in four innings against James Paxton in his return from the injured list. They mustered only four hits on the afternoon, striking out 10 times and swinging through 24 pitches.

Paddack, meanwhile, missed his share of bats, recording 11 whiffs and six strikeouts. Afterward, he said there were no lingering effects of the stiff neck that forced the Padres to push his outing from Sunday to Wednesday.

Whatever the reason for Paddack's slow start, the Padres are counting on him to bounce back. On two big stages this season -- at Dodger Stadium two weeks ago and on Wednesday at Yankee Stadium -- he’s posted his two worst outings.

“He's got a lot to learn as he pitches on the mound in big stadiums on the road,” said manager Andy Green. “It's a good opportunity to challenge yourself. He's going to keep growing from it. We're all excited, as an organization, to see where he goes.”

The Padres, of course, have every right to be excited about Paddack. Even with Wednesday’s loss, his ERA sits at 2.40, and he’s striking out hitters at a 28 percent clip. It’s also clear that he isn’t quite a finished product.

“You want to pitch in postseason games? There are steps to doing that from being in Double-A last year,” Green said. “Some of that is pitching on the road in Yankee Stadium, pitching on the road in Dodger Stadium, taking what you can from each experience and growing.”

Knowing Paddack -- an incessant worker with “relentless” stitched onto the outside of his glove -- the Padres think that’s exactly what he’ll do.

Huge homestand looms

Despite Wednesday’s outcome, the Padres finished their road trip through two tricky American League cities with a 3-3 record. They’ll return to San Diego with a 29-27 record, squarely in the early National League Wild Card mix.

Opportunity awaits. In their next four series, the Padres have nine games against the three worst teams in the NL -- Miami, Washington and San Francisco. Their upcoming 10-game homestand could be season-defining.

If San Diego can take advantage of weaker opposition, it could alter the front office’s plans as trade season approaches. The Padres still aren’t favorites to make a push for Craig Kimbrel or Dallas Keuchel after next week’s Draft, but if they’re lingering on the fringe of contention, general manager A.J. Preller might be aggressive in pursuit of a starting pitcher.

Green, meanwhile, prefers to focus on the short-term.

“We’re 29-27, just past Memorial Day,” he said. “It’s a long season, long way to go.”

Look what I found!

Adam Warren was hit hard in his return to Yankee Stadium, allowing three runs in 1 1/3 innings, but he provided the defensive highlight of the day.

LeMahieu hit a one-hopper up the middle as Warren fell off the mound to the right side. He stuck his glove behind his back, just in time for the ball to settle squarely into its webbing.

Warren took one step and threw to first, then tried to contain a smile as he trotted back toward the dugout.