Bill Center, longtime sportswriter for U-T San Diego, is an employee of the Padres.

Two statistics have plagued the Padres in recent seasons.

The first is slow starts.

Thursday’s 2-0 win over the Giants snapped a four-season Opening Day losing streak for the Padres.

Worse than that, however, is the fact that the Padres haven’t had a winning first month to the season since 2010. Over the last eight years, the Padres have gone a collective 83-130 -- or an average of 10.4-16.3 -- during the first month of the season.

The Padres took three of the season’s first four games from National League West rival San Francisco. The Padres last started a season with a 3-1 record in 2011. And the Padres were 28-48 against division rivals last year.

Plus, the Padres drew 158,767 to Petco Park for the season’s first four home games, an average crowd of 39,692. The Padres’ average attendance after the first four home games in 2018 was 32,042, giving the Padres a 7,650 bump this year.

NOTEBOOK:

• RHP Chris Paddack allowed a run on two hits and a walk with seven strikeouts in five innings Sunday in his celebrated Major League debut. The three relievers who followed him allowed no hits over the final four innings. The two-hitter was the Padres’ first since June 10 against the Marlins. Paddack also had four straight strikeouts during Sunday’s game. The last time a Padres pitcher did that in his Major League debut was Dave Wehrmeister on April 16, 1976.

• In their back-to-back Major League debuts, LHP Nick Margevicius and Paddack gave up two runs on five hits, a walk and two hit batters, with 12 strikeouts in 10 innings. That’s a combined 1.80 ERA and an 0.80 WHIP.

• Carrying that another step, the first four Padres starting pitchers -- Eric Lauer, Joey Lucchesi, Margevicius and Paddack -- allowed two runs on 12 hits, four walks and two hit batters with 22 strikeouts in 21 1/3 innings. That is a combined 0.84 ERA and an 0.84 WHIP.

• INF Greg Garcia, a native of El Cajon, Calif., and a Valhalla High School grad, doubled in each of his first two games as a Padre. The last time Garcia doubled in two straight games was July 21-22, 2016, while with the Cardinals.

• LF Wil Myers has two hits in three of his first four games, and is off to a 6-for-13 start with a double, a homer, three runs scored, two RBIs and two walks for an Opening Series slash line of .462/.533/.769 with a 1.303 OPS.