Thursday, April 10

"Cold." That was my response on Friday, when the cheerful Cubs employee asked how I was doing as he checked credentials outside the Wrigley Field press box before the team's home opener.

He laughed: "Hey! It's never cold at Wrigley!"

By the end of the weekend, the Padres disagreed.

"Don't like the cold," said Fernando Tatis Jr.

"I miss San Diego," added Manny Machado. "We get spoiled."

Despite the conditions, the Padres salvaged a wild finale on Sunday afternoon after dropping the first two games of the series. Following those two losses, I wrote about the questions San Diego must answer when it faces left-handed pitching. Here are three more takeaways from the team's weekend in Chicago.

1. This bullpen is nails

Manager Mike Shildt likes to note that a consistent theme in any team that routinely comes from behind is a bullpen that holds its opponent in check. That was never truer than Sunday.

The Padres allowed seven runs in the first two innings -- then none the rest of the way, as the usual suspects locked things down at the back end.

"The bullpen," Shildt said after Sunday's victory, "was fantastic."

Has been all season. With Logan Gillaspie's callup on Sunday, the Padres have now used nine pitchers in relief this season. Gillaspie, Omar Cruz and Alek Jacob can be considered low-leverage (at least for now).

The other six? The high leverage options in the San Diego 'pen? Robert Suarez, Jason Adam, Jeremiah Estrada, Adrian Morejon, Yuki Matsui and Wandy Peralta have combined to pitch 30 innings. They've allowed one run. Total. That's a 0.30 ERA from the big arms in the Padres' bullpen through the first 10 games of the season.

2. Arraez is heating up

It's very much like Luis Arraez to record four hits and a stolen base on Sunday in a performance that was largely overshadowed by other aspects of the Padres' comeback. But after a weekend away, it sure looks like Arraez is back to his old self.

On the season-opening seven-game homestand, Arraez had just three hits in his first 26 at-bats. But he hit a rare home run in his last at-bat at Petco Park, sparking a 7-for-13 surge.

"I feel good," Arraez said. "The first day [I was] making good contact. I just need to continue to do that. I'll be fine."

Indeed, Arraez's contact-oriented approach often puts him at the mercy of opposing defenses. Toward the end of the homestand, even when he wasn't racking up hits, Arraez was spraying his usual array of line drives.

"He's hit the ball as good as he's hit it the three years he's won batting titles," Shildt said. "If four balls, three balls, don't go right at somebody, then you'd be going: 'Look at Luis, he's on track for another batting title.'

"Now if Luis was swinging and missing a lot and striking out and not having quality at-bats consistently, then yeah. ... But that's the lens I judge things with, at least -- just having the quality at-bats that tell us he's in a good spot."

3. The Padres have rotation-depth questions

As we've already noted, the bullpen was excellent over the weekend. It needed to be.

Starters Randy Vásquez, Nick Pivetta and Kyle Hart combined to cover only 8 1/3 innings across the three games. We'll give Pivetta a bit of a pass -- he was outstanding (and efficient) in his debut and has a track record.

But since the injury to Yu Darvish during Spring Training -- and to a lesser extent, injuries to Matt Waldron and Jhony Brito -- the Padres' rotation has been their biggest concern.

Yes, they have question marks at catcher and in left field, plus uncertainty against left-handed pitching. But those problems pale in comparison because they're so easily masked. If the superstars at the top of the lineup are mashing, do any of those issues really matter?

A thin rotation is a different story. The Padres can't afford to make a trend out of short starts from the back end -- because of the tax it'll put on their bullpen, because of the onus it puts on the offense. Hart, in particular, only worked two-thirds of an inning on Sunday, raising questions about whether he'll make his next scheduled start.

In any case, Darvish (right elbow inflammation) recently stretched out the length at which he's been playing catch, but he's still yet to throw a bullpen session. His return can't come soon enough.

Tatis has already notched 14 hits out of the leadoff spot this season. Who holds the Padres' single-season record for hits from the leadoff spot?

A. Tony Fernández

B. Gene Richards

C. Bip Roberts

D. Quilvio Veras

The Padres had Thursday off after arriving in Chicago late Wednesday night. Nearly every player was at Jason Heyward's baseball academy and community center located in the city.

"That's always special," Heyward said. "You have people willing to come, donate their time, be there around kids and be there up close and in person. ... It means everything. It doesn't happen without teammates and their support."

Heyward's facility has seen a number of big league visitors through the years, but he was was quick to note that the kids reacted like the Padres were "rock stars" -- Tatis and Machado in particular.

Whatever reaction the kids had to seeing their favorite players, the experience was clearly mutual. Heyward's new teammates were floored by the facility and its impact.

"You can see all the lives that he's touched off the field," said right-hander Michael King. "You can see the impact that he's had, but then the dinner we went to afterward -- it was all team-bonding stuff, and it's everything that you've heard and you would expect out of a teammate like Jason Heyward."

"One, it was just fun getting time away from the field with the guys," said Adam. "But also, just to see what he's doing in the community and doing for kids that maybe don't have as many advantages as a lot of us had -- it's really cool to see."

• The Padres' lineup choices are fairly straightforward against righties. Against lefties, however, there are still plenty of question marks.

• A year ago, the Padres made wild comeback victories a habit. That trait may be carrying over into 2025.

• Sunday's strange first inning turned even more bizarre with two consecutive run-scoring balks.

• San Diego's record-setting, season-opening winning streak came to an end in a "game of inches" in the Cubs' home opener.

• Mike Lupica writes that the Padres are back with a vengeance this season, capable of challenging the Dodgers for the NL West crown.  

PADRES.TV is back for the 2025 season, allowing fans to stream regular-season games in the San Diego area without blackouts. (That offer -- available now for $99.99 -- is only for fans in the Padres’ home TV territory and a separate service from the MLB.TV out-of-market package.)

A. Fernández recorded 170 hits out of the leadoff spot for the 1992 Padres.

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