Padres Daily: Ordering up a change; Buehler grinds; Durán's dream; Giolito arrives

Good morning from Seattle,

The bottom-heavy Padres won again.

They have turned around a road trip, gotten back to nine games above .500 and remain completely baffling.

Yesterday's 7-4 victory over the Mariners, which you can read about in my game story (here), was wonderfully illustrative of who the Padres are offensively.

The bottom six batters in the lineup all got a hit. The Padres got home runs from the No.4, No.7 and No.9 batters.

For the second consecutive day, the top three batters were hitless.

The Padres won seven of their past 11 games. And in the past 10 of those, Jackson Merrill, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado have combined to hit .114 with four RBIs.

In that same span, Nick Castellanos, Gavin Sheets and Miguel Andujar are collectively hitting .274 with 16 RBIs.

Andujar is hitting .303 with eight doubles and three homers in his past 23 games. Castellanos is 10-for-35 (.286) with two doubles and three homers in his past 11 games. Sheets is 10-for-30 (.333) with three homers in his past 10 games.

We have reached the point where we should at least entertain the insane.

On one hand, the definition of insanity is attempting the same thing over and over and expecting different results. On the other hand, it feels a little insane to think of dropping the top three down toward the bottom of the order.

If you know anything about how major league baseball works, you know that the main reason Machado and Tatis won't be dropped to, say seventh and eighth in the order, is because they are Machado and Tatis.

Yes, Craig Stammen dropped Tatis to fifth for three games earlier this month. But Tatis has hit second in the past seven games. Machado has hit fifth 15 times in eight seasons with the Padres and has not hit lower than fourth since 2015.

In defense of managers, there are egos to be navigated. In defense of star players, they have big egos because it is essentially required to play at the level they do. This isn't Little League.

But I had to at least ask Stammen about the possibility of moving his stars down.

He smiled and said, "They're going to hit."

The reality is the Padres have to believe that.

Another reality is that while it is the rest of the lineup that has carried the Padres most of this season, it is not like anyone has responded to being moved up in the lineup this season.

Except Sheets.

But he has thrived hitting in the middle of the order and has lately settled in at cleanup.

Maybe a revitalized Ramón Laureano gets another try near the top. It is conceivable Castellanos would work in the No.3 spot for a time. Andujar is an easy fit at No.2 or 3. It certainly seems someone (anyone) else has to get a shot leading off until Merrill gets right.

He has been on base eight times in the past 10 games. He has put the ball in play 18 times in 39 plate appearances in that span. He has put the ball in play hard 11 times. He has put the ball in play hard in the air seven times. He is back to chasing pitches outside the strike zone nearly 40% of the time.

Even if it did happen that Stammen made one of the most shocking managerial moves in a long time, his stars not getting the most plate appearances is not the answer long term. The answer is the same as it has ever been.

Machado, Merrill and Tatis have to start hitting.

"We’re not gonna be able to sustain this all year," Machado said Friday.

The conversation in which he said that occurred before the first game here, and it was almost exclusively about his struggles at the plate.

I wrote (here) about that yesterday.

Long time coming

Rodolfo Durán waited 12 years and then 11 plate appearances for his first major league hit.

It came in the seventh inning yesterday when he launched a first-pitch fastball from Logan Gilbert 386 feet and into the left field seats.

"Finally, we got the reward," Durán said. "… If you play baseball, if you want to be in the major leagues, you always think of that, like you have dreams about it. Now (that) I was able to do it, it's amazing."

Then he almost hit a second one his next time up, sending a 389-foot drive to right-center field that Julio Rodriguez leaped to catch with his glove above the wall to end the top of the ninth inning.

"For that part of the field, I didn’t know if I had it," Durán said. "But as soon as the Julio jumped, I said ‘Maybe.' And then he got it."

Durán, who was 17 when he signed with the Phillies in 2015, has 2,323 minor-league plate appearances while playing in 12 different towns for four different organizations.

Called up May 7 when Luis Campusano went on the injured list with a fractured toe, Durán was 0-for-8 in his first three starts.

It was pretty cool how excited the Padres were for him.

Sheets recalled turning to hitting coach Steven Souza Jr. and saying, "I feel like I just hit the home run."

Buehler grinds

The Padres will probably be fine if Walker Buehler continues to pitch like a solid No.4 or No.5 starter.

But inside Buehler still beats the wild heart of a top-of-the-rotation pitcher who expects to go seven innings every time out.

He allowed a single run in the fourth and another in the fifth to let the Mariners cut into what was a 5-0 deficit.

"If you get a lead like that, I’ve got to be a little bit more aggressive in the zone early," he said yesterday. "I can’t have nine-pitch at bats."

He referred specifically to the two times he took that many pitches to strike out Jhonny Paredes, in the second and fourth innings.

"The eight-hole took up 19 pitches," Buehler said. "So there’s the inning or inning-and-a-half that we’re looking for. So you try and get ahead. I’ve struggled for two years. When I feel good, I want to go have good games. So I think there’s a little bit of comfort in the way that I’ve been throwing the ball, in terms of like, ‘OK, I can go and attack and kind of get through more innings.' But, you know, we all start somewhere, so I feel good about it."

Buehler began strong, same way he has in most of his nine starts for the Padres.

After surrendering a one-out single and issuing a two-out walk in the second inning, he struck out the next four batters he faced to get through the third.

To that point, he had been ahead 0-1 against nine of the first 11 batters he faced and got to 1-2 against seven of those 11 batters.

But upon returning to the mound after the Padres scored four runs in the top of the fourth inning to get to that 5-0 lead, he was not as sharp.

He surrendered a run on two singles and a walk in the fourth and a solo homer by JP Crawford in the fifth.

Still, that was encouraging for a pitcher who has let innings get away from him.

"The fourth inning is probably the most important for me," Buehler said. "In the past this season, especially, but in the years past, we get a first and second nobody out or whatever, that was like, I’m gonna give up two runs and three runs. So to get out of there with one and make get the ball on the ground … and then punch the guy out to get out the inning with one, I think it’s at least a building block from me going forward."

A 27-pitch fourth sent his pitch count soaring, and he finished his five innings having thrown a season-high 101 pitches.

After allowing nine runs in 6⅔ innings in his first two starts, Buehler has gone at least five innings in five of his past seven starts. He has a 4.15 ERA in that span (34⅔ innings).

New guy

Lucas Giolito waited out spring training and signed with the Padres more than three weeks into the season, and he will make his season debut Sunday.

That is certainly unique.

But Giolito has been through some things he believes prepared him.

After seven seasons with the White Sox, he was sent to the Angels at the trade deadline in 2023. The Angels placed him on waivers a month later, and he was claimed by the Guardians.

"Experience is a big (thing)," Giolito said. "I’ve been through it before. … At the time that was kind of a whirlwind, whereas having that experience, it’s normal now. I have played for a number of teams in my career. It becomes something you get used to."

Giolito signed with the Red Sox before the 2024 season but did not pitch for them until ‘25 after having an internal brace procedure to repair the UCL in his throwing elbow.

He came back a month into last season, did not miss a start and completed one of his finest campaigns (3.41 ERA over 145 innings in 26 starts).

Giolito joined the Padres at T-Mobile Park yesterday, and I wrote (here) about his mindset and the Padres' expectations as he joins their rotation.

Tidbits

• The Padres clinched a series victory in Seattle for the first time since 2018. They have won all five games against the Mariners this season and with a victory today can sweep the season series against their interleague "rival" for the first time since they played three times in 2021. The Mariners had won 14 of the team's previous 18 games entering this season.
• Wandy Peralta worked a 1-2-3 sixth inning yesterday to run his scoreless streak to eight innings over his past six appearances. Yesterday was the first time in 12 appearances that Peralta appeared in a game the Padres led by less than five runs. It was just the fourth time in his 19 appearances this season that he entered a game the Padres led and the fifth time he appeared in a game they went on to win.
• Laureano's double in yesterday's seventh inning was his first extra-base hit in 10 games. The nine games without an extra-base hit was his longest stretch since joining the Padres at the trade deadline last season. He has emerged from a seven-game hitless streak to hit in the past three games (4-for-12).
• With Mason Miller down after throwing 34 pitches in 1⅓ innings the day before, Jeremiah Estrada worked a scoreless ninth inning yesterday for his first save of the season and fifth of his career.
• The Padres were caught stealing twice yesterday for the first time this season.
• The Padres have not trailed in the two games here. They have not trailed in just 14 of their 27 victories. They improved to 15-5 when they score first.

All right, that's it for me.

Talk to you tomorrow.

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This story was originally published May 17, 2026 at 6:58 AM.