Good morning from St. Louis,

There goes that.

For a day, at least, the Padres were back to having no discernable offense.

In fact, the two baserunners they had were a season low.

This had a lot — if not everything — to do with Dustin May.

There are times a pitcher is helped by an offense and times the pitcher simply owns the offense.

Lasty night, May was arguably as good as he had ever been. He was certainly better than he had ever been against the Padres, and he has had some excellent starts against them.

You can read in my game story (here) about his complete game shutout and what the Padres had to say about it after a 3-0 loss.

May probably would have had a stellar night against virtually any team with the way he was throwing.

But he was also up against the right team considering that he pitched that team the right way.

As we have discussed before, a big part of the Padres having the worst offensive numbers in the major leagues is that they are the worst team in the major leagues against fastballs.

And so it could not have been a surprise that May, who was still hitting 97 mph with his sinker in the eighth inning and 97 mph with his four-seam fastball in the ninth, threw more of them than usual on Monday.

The Padres are the only team in the major leagues with just one hitter ranked in the top 100 in batting average against fastballs. That hitter is Fernando Tatis Jr., who entered last night batting .304 against fastballs.

As a team, the Padres ranked last in the major leagues with a .250 average against four-seam fastballs, two-seam fastballs (sinkers) and cutters before last night.

May has all three pitches in his repertoire.

That he didn’t have to rely solely on those pitches only made the Padres’ task more difficult. He got six whiffs on 11 swings on his sweeper. He threw his changeup four times and got two outs with it.

But for the first time this season, his three most-used pitches were the three fastballs.

Given that the Padres have been so much better on offense lately, this can be sloughed off as an aberration for now.

Pending how they do against Andre Pallante tonight.

After opener, Giolito closer?

Lucas Giolito survived singles by the first two batters he faced. He thrived in a nine-pitch third inning. He survived a 403-foot drive that Jackson Merrill leaped up to catch above the wall, taking a home run away from Alec Burleson.

Giolito did not survive a ball going through the webbing of his glove.

After surrendering a two-out single lined to left field by Lars Nootbar in the fourth inning, Giolito appeared to field a hard comebacker from Masyn Winn, but he never got to throw the ball to first base for what would have been the third out because he never actually got possession of the ball.

“It’s the first time it’s ever happened,” Giolito said. “Obviously, the glove (is) being worked on now to try and tighten it up. It’s pretty unfortunate. But at the same time, like, what did I do with the next guy, right? I get a bases-clearing double. If I had executed better, I could have been out of the inning. So, despite an equipment malfunction, it’s on me to continue to execute and get outs.”

Fair enough.

Because not only did Jimmy Crooks follow Wynn to the plate and drive in both runners with a double to the gap in left-center, Giolito reverted to the issue that has been so concerning in the next inning.

He walked the lead-off batter and then, after a double play erased the runner, he walked the next batter before Burleson yanked a double down the right field line to put the Cardinals up 3-0.

“It’s kind of more of the same from my last few outings,” Giolito said. “I’ll feel good and in control. Especially today, like commanding the fastball well early. And then it’s like I throw a couple misfires, and it throws me out of whack and I start spraying. I lose the release point bad.”

Giolito has struggled enough that the Padres used Wandy Peralta to open last night’s game. He worked a 1-2-3 first inning before Giolito began the second inning.

“Trying to help our starters out a little bit — get a little more comfortable, get into the game a little bit, take that edge off at the beginning of the game,” manager Craig Stammen said yesterday afternoon.

There are strategic considerations as well. When Giolito went five innings, it meant he was in the sixth and facing Cardinals hitters for just a second time rather than a third.

The Padres plan to use an opener again tomorrow for Griffin Canning, who is struggling in much the same manner as Giolito finding the strike zone with his fastball.

It could be seen as encouraging that Giolito was in the zone with 71% of his fastballs last night, by far his highest percentage of the season.

“It’s frustrating,” he said, “because I know that if I can just stay with that kind of first version of myself throughout the entire start, we’re gonna be in good shape.”

Missing men

I wrote (here) yesterday afternoon about the suspensions handed out yesterday by MLB to Ron Marinaccio and Stammen.

Stammen missing a game and Marinaccio missing three (pending his appeal) was punishment for Marinaccio having been deemed to have intentionally hit the Orioles’ Gunnar Henderson with a pitch on Saturday.

Also, the Padres are without closer Mason Miller for at least this series, as he tends to a family matter he has asked to remain private.

The only positive from last night is that the Padres did not run into any questions about how they would use their relievers in a tight game. They got through the night with Kyle Hart, recalled to take Miller’s place, working the final two innings.

Merrill’s mastery

Merrill continues to be the master thief.

He robbed his fifth home run of the season yesterday by hustling back to the warning track, slowing as he tracked the ball and moved closer to the wall and then jumping at the last moment to make the catch with his glove beyond the top of the wall.

JACKSON MERRILL WITH ANOTHER HOME RUN ROBBERY OF RED HOT ALEC BURLESON

He is unreal! Hang a star!#padres #forthefaithful pic.twitter.com/2obcukn33k

— Padres Highlights (@LFGPads19) June 16, 2026

As Burleson rounded first base and saw Merrill come down with the ball, he said, “No way.”

Giolito literally tipped his cap to Merrill on the field and did so figuratively after the game.

“He timed the jump perfectly,” Giolito said. “I saw it happen in slow motion, damn near. … You can never expect a home run is gonna get robbed. It seemed like a high launch angle, so I didn’t know if it was going to kind of die out at the warning track or keep going. And then when I saw him back up against the wall, I’m like, ‘Home run. All right.’ But he jumped, he got it. It was great.”

2B or not 2B

Tatis ended May’s bid for a perfect game by walking to lead off the seventh inning. That also extended Tatis’ on-base streak to nine games, during which he is getting on at a .375 clip. That is actually two points lower than the rate at which he is getting on base over the past 31 games.

Why 31 games?

That goes back to May 12, when Tatis essentially became the Padres’ full-time second baseman.

He had started at second base in 25 of the 30 games leading up to last night, when he was back in right field.

There has been speculation, including by some in the organization, that part of the reason Tatis is hitting better is because he is back in the infield. As much as he has taken to right field, winning two Platinum Gloves, Tatis does, in his words, “love the dirt.”

Here are Tatis’ numbers when starting at each spot:

Now, Tatis also moved back into the leadoff spot on May 17 and is batting .346/.393/.449 in 117 plate appearances since then. In that span, he has gone 6-for-19 (.316) with a double and a walk in the five games in which he has played right field.

Tidbits

Last night was the eighth time the Padres have been shut out this season, one fewer time than in both 2025 and 2024.
Stammen said it is likely catcher Blake Hunt will make his major league debut in Wednesday’s series finale here.
Will Wagner got his first start of the season at third base, as Manny Machado served as designated hitter.
Machado had the lone hit off May. He is 7-for-25 over his past six games, which has raised his batting average 11 points (to .177).
Wagner’s on-base streak came to an end. He had reached base nine times in his 19 plate appearances during the streak.
Outfielder Samad Taylor did not start for the first time in eight games. He is batting .385 (10-for-26) with three walks during a seven-game hitting streak.
Peralta lowered his ERA to 2.12 for the season. He has a 0.87 ERA (two runs) and has stranded seven of the eight runners he has inherited in 20⅔ innings since May 1.

All right, that’s it for me.

Talk to you tomorrow.