Padres Daily: Saved by slug; saving Mason; Castellanos plays; winning with Walker; enduring Durán

Good morning,

The Padres offense is in a quality over quantity phase.

“Hopefully it gets better than that,” Ramón Laureano said. “But we’ll take it. … As long as we’re scoring one more than the other team, we’re good."

They did that just with their first three hits last night. Then they tacked on three extra runs when, in the eighth inning, they finally got a hit that didn't travel beyond the outfield wall.

You can read in my game story (here) how home runs by Manny Machado, Nick Castellanos and Laureano did the heavy lifting in last night's 7-3 victory over the Athletics.

The Padres have been experiencing a power surge for a while.

Do we really need to talk anymore about how they need to hit better than they are hitting?

But seriously, they need to hit better.

The 2026 Padres are just the second team (along with the 1908 White Sox) to ever begin a season with at least 30 victories in its first 50 games while batting as low as .221. The 1908 White Sox also had a .221 average and were 30-20.

The Padres are one of three teams to ever have an on-base percentage as low as .293 and have a record as good as they do. The 1985 Mets were 30-20 with a .291 OBP, and the 1908 White Sox also had a .293 OBP.

So, anyway, home runs help.

As long as you hit them. The Padres have also in the past 12 games suffered two shutouts and been held to one run twice.

To be clear, then, this past dozen games does not mean the Padres offense is by any stretch of the imagination fixed.

"I know that we’re competing and we’re finding ways to win baseball games," Castellanos said. Am I going to start saying that, ‘Oh, this is now like what we’re going to be doing now for the future, and we found it, and it’s all just rainbows and sunshine from here?' I don’t know, but I will say that as a group we’re locked in, we care about the stuff that matters, and I think that is a reason why we’re able to just find ways to win."

May be onto something

One guy has been insisting all season that home runs would eventually follow if the Padres stuck with their approach of taking what the pitcher gives them and hitting line drives instead of trying to do too much.

Hitting coach Steven Souza Jr. said last week that he felt the Padres' biggest issue offensively was that they got impatient and frustrated and abandoned the prescribed approach when hits continued to not fall.

How much are hits not falling? The Padres' .263 batting average on balls in play is lowest in the major leagues. Of their 10 players with at least 100 plate appearances, seven have a BABIP of .265 or lower. The MLB average is .287.

For some more on Souza's hitting philosophy and how he came by it, you can read Annie Heilbrunn's Q&A (here) with him. Therein, he also talks about his journey from highly touted minor leaguer, his injury-plagued big-league career and what is going on with Fernando Tatis Jr.

Saving the saver

The Padres didn't need the three runs they scored in the eighth inning to win.

But having a four-run lead with three outs to go made last night a win-win.

They were able to pass on using closer Mason Miller, and Jeremiah Estrada was instead called on to work the ninth.

"That’s huge," manager Craig Stammen said. "We’ve talked a lot over the season about (Miller's) workload and trying to limit that and not wear him out in April and May. And for our offense to put up enough runs to give us a four-run lead, where it’s not a save situation, and then to have a guy like Jeremiah Estrada sitting down there in the bullpen … and and he just goes 1-2-3, it makes it really easy to help Mason stay a little fresher for us through the season and not wear him out so early."

Miller has pitched in 22 games, which is six more than he had thrown through his team's first 50 games either of the past two seasons. His 22⅔ innings are also most in his career to this point in a season - 6⅔ more than ‘25 and 1⅓ more than 2024. (Miller made his debut 19 games into the A's 2023 season and worked a total of 33⅓ innings in the major leagues that year.)

As we have discussed, the potential danger of his having worked so much was primarily that in protecting Miller the Padres might not have him available in a save situation.

The issue is not necessarily that he will be overworked. The Padres are not going to endanger his health.

Evidence of that was that he wasn't used last night. He had pitched the previous two times the Padres were protecting a four-run lead in the ninth inning. The only time this season he didn't pitch when they led by four in the ninth was April 11, when he had pitched the previous three days.

Earning a spot?

Should he continue to have the kind of at-bats he is having, Rodolfo Durán is going to make it difficult for the Padres to send him down when Campusano is healthy.

Durán has shown from the time he was called up and made his major league debut on May 7 that he is capable behind the plate.

He has adeptly handled (and drawn praise from) Michael King and Walker Buehler, the starting pitchers he has caught since being called up. He has thrown out four of the 11 runners who have attempted to steal while he is behind the plate, including the only one who tried last night. He is 7-for-7 on ABS challenges, including the two he got overturned last night.

But it is what he is doing at the plate the past three games that has enhanced his chance to get more playing time and potentially stick around.

Durán reached base all three times he went to the plate last night, walking twice and then leading off the Padres' three-run eighth inning with a single.

That followed his drawing his first career walk in his previous start and getting his first career hit (a home run) in the start before that.

It was that game in Seattle that changed his mindset at the plate after he had gone 0-for-8 in his first three games.

"I relaxed," Durán said. "I wasn’t getting a hit the first couple of games. After that hit, it let me play better. Now everything is going the right way."

A player again

We spent more than a month talking about Castellanos adapting to his new role.

After 12 seasons starting virtually every game, he was a bench player for the first time.

Now, in large part because he adapted to that role, he is starting virtually every game.

"He’s definitely a creature of habit," Stammen said. "And when he does get to play more, he’s probably going to swing a little bit better."

Castellanos was not shy talking about his difficulty maintaining a "rhythm" early this season. But he eventually did start to figure it out.

He and Stammen spoke earlier this month about that process, which included a conversation they had at the end of April in Mexico City in which Stammen reassured Castellanos he had a role on the team.

"I feel like since then, it’s just kind of given me clarity on kind of what to expect and kind of just kind of put my mind at ease," Castellanos said. "It was kind of breaking it down there for me, and I was like, ‘All right, I can have something to see and kind of lock into and buy into.’"

Castellanos was batting .146/.196/.208 to that point.

He did not play in four straight games at the end of that road trip, in Colorado and against the Diamondbacks in Arizona.

He started against the Cubs in the first game of the ensuing homestand, going 1-for-4, and flied out as a pinch hitter the next night.

The next night, on April 29, he went 1-for-2 and hit his first homer of the season. He is batting .250 with an .802 OPS (four home runs, two doubles) in 50 plate appearances since then.

Castellanos has started eight of the past 10 games after starting 19 times in the Padres' first 40 games.

He is batting just .214 in those eight games, but that includes a three-run homer and last night's game-tying solo home run. The game before this run of starts began was May 10 against the Cardinals, when he entered the game as a sub and later hit a game-tying home run with two outs in the ninth, enabling the Padres to win in 10 innings.

Second chance

Another thing that happened to get Castellanos back on the field regularly was that Jake Cronenworth went on the concussion injured list on May 6.

Castellanos' playing time had become even more limited because Ty France and Gavin Sheets started hitting in mid-April and both play a superior first base to Castellanos, who took up the position just this spring.

But after initially turning to Sung-Mun Song to play second base in Cronenworth's absence, the Padres have settled on Fernando Tatis Jr. starting there.

That left right field for Castellanos.

"When we sat down and talked to him about a different role, we talked about, ‘Hey, if we have guys that get hurt, you’re going to get to play a whole heck of a lot more.’" Stammen said last night. "And that’s kind of where he’s at right now. With Croney out at second, we can move ‘Tati' into second. We feel really good about putting (Castellanos') bat in the lineup and playing right field."

The Padres have taken to moving Tatis back out to right field and subbing in Song late in close games.

"I definitely understand it," Castellanos said. "We put the bats in there and get the runs across. We get the runs across, we have the bullpen. Now, let’s get our best defense out there. I get it, and it works. And at the end of the day, if we’re winning, that’s good for San Diego."

Back on track

Adrian Morejón continued to look like the 2025 version of himself last night.

The left-hander entered the game with the bases loaded and two down in the sixth inning and struck out pinch-hitter Colby Thomas before retiring the Athletics's 2-3-4 batters in order in the seventh.

When Laureano homered in the bottom of the seventh and the Padres held on, Morejón got his 17th win since the start of last season, most in the major leagues by a relief pitcher.

I wrote last week about Morejón sharpening his focus after a tough start to the season.

He has allowed one hit over 4⅔ scoreless innings and stranded six of seven inherited runners in his past five appearances. That follows a sometimes-unlucky start to the season in which he had a 5.66 ERA across 17 appearances while allowing 22 hits over 20⅔ innings and stranding four of the five runners he inherited.

"He tackled the top of their lineup with a lot of their good hitters who have been swinging the bat really well," Stammen said. "Can’t speak highly enough of the job Adrian has done over the last few years, and especially this year, coming back from a couple of rough outings early. He has righted the ship and really just been very dominant."

Winning Walker

When Buehler walked off the mound having surrendered three runs in five innings it actually seemed sort of marvelous.

He had walked four batters, and among the five hits he allowed were a pair of doubles that came with no outs. The Athletics were 1-for-7 against him with runners in scoring position.

"I guess I kind of kept us in it," Buehler said. "Obviously, Manny picked us up in the first and then Nick there in the fifth. So for me personally, not a great day. But pretty good time as a team to win when the starter doesn’t throw great."

Buehler lamented the shape and effectiveness of his curveball, which yielded the two doubles and a single among the four times it was put in play. Of the other five times he threw it, none were misses or called strikes.

It has not been anywhere near his most frequent pitch, but it has been an out pitch.

Opponents had been 7-for-30 (.233) in at-bats that ended on his curveball, and he was getting a 35% whiff rate with it.

Buehler had allowed four runs on eight hits and two walks over 11 innings in his previous two starts and had gotten his ERA down to 5.01 (from 5.64 before those two starts). Last night reversed that course, but it didn’t stop the Padres from winning.

They have won Buehler's past four starts.

Here is a look at how the Padres have done when their three main starters have pitched:

Buehler believes

The Padres have all but forbidden their pitchers from challenging ball calls. Most teams, in fact, decided from the start that pitchers were not in the best position and were liable to be too emotionally swayed to be entrusted with ABS challenges.

Yet, there was Buehler in the fifth inning making his second challenge of the season and the second challenge by a Padres pitcher this season. (Just 45 pitchers have challenged calls this season, and Buehler is one of 11 to have done so multiple times.)

"It’s a f-ng strike," Buehler yelled after his first pitch to Brent Rooker in the fifth.

Then he quickly tapped the top of his head.

For as sure as he was, it was awfully close.

Tidbits

• You can read in Jeff Sanders' game preview (here) about the prognosis for Jackson Merrill, who is "sore" but appears to not be headed to the injured list.
• Last night was the Padres' 14th victory decided in the seventh inning or later but their first in eight games. The four victories they had in that span was their longest stretch of the season without a victory decided after the sixth inning.
• Yesterday was the second time in their past six games the Padres have scored seven runs on seven hits. They scored at least seven runs on no more than seven hits 52 times in franchise history before Saturday.
• For the first time since April 12, Xander Bogaerts' OPS slipped below .700 after he went 0-for-3 last night. He is hitless (0-for-11) in his past three games and is batting .181/.231/.278 in 21 games since April 29.
• Machado is 3-for-26 over his past seven games. The hits: two home runs and a double. Of his 31 hits this season, 13 have been for extra bases (eight homers, five doubles). His batting average (.179) ranks 167th out of 171 qualifying players while his slugging percentage (.341) is up to 141st.
• Machado's home run had an exit velocity of 109.6 mph. It was his hardest-hit ball of the season. The 20 degree launch angle (the ball never got more than 50 feet above the ground) was a Machado special. His 56 home runs hit that low are second in the major leagues since 2015, 13 behind Giancarlo Stanton and 18 ahead of third place Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the retired Nelson Cruz.

All right, that's it for me.

Talk to you tomorrow.

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This story was originally published May 23, 2026 at 7:08 AM.