After falling short on Monday night against the San Francisco Giants, the San Diego Padres are seeking to fix their early offensive woes. If they can do that, it’ll go a long way to alleviating the Friar Faithful’s concerns.
2025 RISP Struggles Carry Over for Padres
Last season, the Friars endured a difficult period of inconsistency when it came to their offense. This included an historic stretch that saw Padres hitters go 0-for-33 with runners in scoring position (RISP).
That inability to produce runs consistently ended up hurting them in the postseason. San Diego fell to the Chicago Cubs in the National League Wild Card round after only scoring five runs against the Windy City pitching staff. So far, those problems haven’t gone away.
Despite the departure of hitting coach Victor Rodriguez (and the subsequent hiring of Steven Souza Jr.), the “slam” has yet to return to “Slam Diego.”
They’ve only scored nine times in these first four games. And it’s not due to a lack of baserunners. They have 23 hits and 12 walks in that same time frame.
Stifled by Starting Pitching
It’s easy to look at the Padres’ 1-3 record and worry about the season ahead. It’s an incredibly small sample size, but it has been difficult to watch, to say the least.
San Diego has only put up six extra-base hits, including two home runs. It’s important to note that they’ve faced an abundance of pitchers who don’t allow hard-hit balls often.
Tarik Skubal, Framber Valdez, and Landen Roupp are all ground-ball pitchers. Each of them, in some way, focuses more of their game on limiting fly balls. They succeeded incredibly well in doing that against San Diego.
Jack Flaherty, meanwhile, is someone who gives up long balls, but the Friars didn’t manage to do that despite winning the game, 3-0.
Tuesday night, they face Giants ace Logan Webb. He’s much more like the former in his ability to limit fly balls, but it’s possible San Diego gets to him after a difficult outing against the New York Yankees on Opening Night (6/7 ER/R, five innings).
Will They Turn It Around?
By God, let’s hope so. But the chase percentage (33.7) is concerning. That’s three points above the MLB average of 30.3, leading San Diego to strike out a disappointingly high 36 times.
There are signs of life, though. Jackson Merrill and Ramón Laureano have each homered in these first few games. Xander Bogaerts has been solid thus far.
Razor Ramón! pic.twitter.com/xAEZBGQ7d5
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) March 28, 2026
But the real thing the Friars need is for stars Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado to wake up. They’ve combined for a .191 batting average (through March 30). If those stars can tap into their potential, San Diego won’t have to rely as much on their pieced-together starting group to keep them in games.
Main Photo Credit: © David Frerker-Imagn Images
