Other teams can also have good pitchers
The main story of the night was Merrill Kelly, a 30-year old making his MLB debut, looking dominant until late. Kelly let his foot off the gas (or ran out of gas) in the 6th inning, after helping to build a 9-0 Arizona lead, and gave up 3 runs before handing it off to the Diamondbacks bullpen.
Until that 6th inning, the only Padres player to get a hit was Franchy Cordero, who did it twice despite not starting the game for San Diego. Depending on where you come down on the glass half-filled or half-empty, that’s either a sign that Kelly had great stuff on Monday night or that the Padres’ offense has some real question marks.
Strahm & Erlin get hammered
After the series against the anemic San Francisco Giants, it was easy to think that the Padres were building a starting rotation that would give them a quality start nightly. That’s why it was particularly jarring to see Adam Jones lead the game off with a HR, and Arizona didn’t really stop tagging Matt Strahm until he was yanked in the 3rd inning after giving up 5 earned runs.
Robbie Erlin entered as the team’s long-reliever, hoping to put out the fire, and ended up doing a pretty good impersonation of Strahm’s performance on the day, going 2.2 innings and giving up 4 runs (1 unearned).
Fernando Tatis Jr. is ready
Sure, Fernando Tatis Jr.’s batting average dropped to .222 for the season after a 1-4 night at the plate, but he once again showed that opposing pitchers can’t make a mistake against him and get away with it:
No doubter! @tatis_jr sends his first Major League home run to the Western Metal Supply Co. Building pic.twitter.com/SDX2x7R44B
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) April 2, 2019
If there were any concerns that Tatis would take a while to figure out big-league pitching, I think he has put those to rest in his first five games.
Searching for Franmil
Yes, it’s very early. Yes, much of the Padres lineup has gotten off to a slow start. However, Franmil Reyes has been handed the starting RF job over Franchy Cordero and Hunter Renfroe, both of whom have shown themselves to be not far behind him, and he’s squandering it so far.
After another 0-3 night at the dish, Reyes is now has a slash-line of .077/.067/.154. He seems like he’s making good contact, as there have been more than a handful of deep flyballs and loud outs, but it just has not clicked from him yet. His current BABIP sits at .083, so it’s probably just a matter of time, but it may be time to move him down in the lineup anyway.
Also, don’t be surprised if Renfroe and Cordero get a couple of the upcoming starts in RF, just to clear Franmil’s head.