Good morning from Phoenix,

Everyone has been talking the past few days about Casey Mize and Robbie Ray.

For good reason.

“It’s a big improvement, obviously,” Manny Machado said late last night. “We know the offense we’ve had. We know the bullpen we’ve had. … It improves the area needed the most help in. To boost that rotation for us was huge.”

But internally, the Padres have been talking about another pitcher who they believed was stepping up and was about to step back into the starting rotation.

In his first real start in a month, Randy Vásquez looked like he was ready to fulfill that prediction.

You can read in my game story (here) about Vásquez’s six scoreless innings and how the offense scored six runs in the first two innings and allowed him to do what he needed to do in attacking the strike zone in a way he had struggled to do for a period in the middle of the season.

The game story also recounts his path in 2026. Vásquez went from having one of the lowest ERAs in the major leagues though mid-May to being exiled to the bullpen in July, even before the Padres went to their full-fledged all-staff method of getting through games. And it seemed he was intent on showing last night that he belongs in the rotation.

The two starting pitchers acquired at Monday’s trade deadline will form the nucleus of the rotation along with Michael King and Walker Buehler for now. Joe Musgrove and/or Nick Pivetta could rejoin the rotation later this month.

The Padres like what having experimented with the expanded bullpen showed them they might be able to do in navigating postseason series.

But in the interim — or if Musgrove and/or Pivetta don’t get back or aren’t effective when they do — the Padres need a fifth starter.

It seems they have found him.

More Randy

Vásquez allows virtually nothing in interviews other than that he will do “whatever the team needs” and various other clichés about pitching.

But there is more in there.

He is as friendly as anyone on the team, and according to teammates is as fun as anyone.

But something happens when he assumes the role of pitcher.

“I’ve been begging him to show his personality more,” Michael King said. “He’s got a great personality. And then when he pitches, he’s just like …”

King made an expressionless face.

“I’m like, ‘Dude, fire up the boys,’” King said. “Give us something.”

Maybe Vásquez is heeding the advice to some extent. He wasn’t demonstrative by any means last night. But there was a swagger about how he held himself.

“I felt like he had really good rhythm today and had the pace of like, ‘I’m dominating this game,’” King said. “And I think that translated to (his results).”

Last night was the first time a Padres starting pitcher besides King went six innings since Walker Buehler did so on June 3. It was the first time one of the team’s starters besides King finished at least six scoreless innings since Vásquez did it on May 15.

Vásquez is still just 24 years old. He became a full-time starter when he joined the Padres in 2024 and spent the past two years shuttling between the majors and Triple-A. Last night’s start was his 69th in the big leagues.

“He’s always been that type of guy that wants to be a top-of-the-line rotation guy,” Machado said. “I think it puts him in harm’s way sometimes, where he wants it so much that he makes some mistakes in the pitches and (hitters) take advantage of it. But today he was under control and was throwing the ball really well.

“He got off to a good start and kind of put a little pressure on himself where it’s like, ‘Damn, I’ve got to be that guy.’ Especially this year, I mean, he was our guy for the first month-and-a-half. He’s still young. He still has a lot to learn.”

The Pivetta scare

There was quite the Internet furor caused Tuesday when video was posted showing Pivetta walking off the mound in the middle of his first inning of his first rehab start.

He left the field with an athletic trainer following him into the dugout.

It appeared he was injured or that he had thought his two-strike pitch ended the inning.

It was the former. Pivetta felt what Padres manager Craig Stammen termed “tightness” in his elbow and shut himself down.

But a short while later, Pivetta felt better and decided he was going to test his elbow. He ended up throwing between 20 to 30 pitches off a mound in the batting cage without further discomfort.

You can read about the strange sequence in Jeff Sanders’ story from Lake Elsinore (here).

The story contains a quote from Joe Musgrove that might be telling.

“I think for him it’s just confidence and trusting his arm,” Musgrove said as Pivetta was preparing to pitch. “I think his stuff is in a really good spot. Throughout this process, he’s had days where it’s been hard to really let the ball go and be confident going through his motion. Not to say it hurts him now, but there has been pain there in the past, so there’s that mental block or hesitation of, ‘If I really rip this, am I going to set myself back?’”

That is an issue for virtually every pitcher working back from a long layoff due to an arm injury.

So while it looked alarming, Tuesday may have been a crucial step. Sure, it might have been the last time Pivetta pitches this season. Or it might have been a blessing that he found out he was OK.

From the jump

The Padres last night jumped on Diamondbacks starter Eduardo Rodriguez like they have done against few starting pitchers this season.

The left-hander entered the game with a 2.47 ERA and a 10-3 record. The Diamondbacks had won 17 of his 22 starts.

The first inning had been his worst, and the Padres made it worse.

They wore him down. They were patient, but they did not wait

Fernando Tatis Jr. doubled on a 2-0 pitch to start the game. Luis Rengifo flied out on the eighth pitch he saw. Machado doubled on a 3-0 pitch. Ty France grounded out on the seventh pitch of his at-bat. Singles by Jackson Merrill and Xander Bogaerts drove in two more runs.

“As an offense, we were just gonna be aggressive off of a good pitcher,” Machado said. “… It was a good team approach.”

An error and four more singles, including Merrill’s on the 10th pitch of his at-bat, led to three more runs in the second inning.

“We brought energy in the dugout today,” Stammen said. “There was just a different energy, a little bit more energy. The guys brought it today against a really good pitcher, one of the guys that’s been pitching the best in the National League. So I liked the energy we had, and then the at-bats were all locked in from the beginning.”

The Padres offense ranks third in the major leagues with 5.7 runs a game since July 8. Their renaissance began a month before that. But they have not been early risers.

Last night was just the second time this season the Padres scored six runs in the first two innings. It was the third time they scored multiple runs in both innings.

X’s X-rays

Xander Bogaerts fouled a ball off the inside of his left foot in the seventh inning. He walked two pitches later and was replaced at first base by a pinch-runner.

X-rays on the foot, which is the same one he fractured with a foul ball last Aug. 27 and missed nearly a month, were negative.

That is good for the Padres, because it is possible Bogaerts is heating up.

He was 2-for-3 with the walk last night and is batting .300 (9-for-30) with a .371 on-base percentage of his past nine games. It is his second-best stretch of nine games or more since April.

There might have been a lot of things amiss with Bogaerts’ swing, his approach and his confidence at various times this season.

One thing that has been different, however, is that he has not had his customary good fortune when he hits the ball.

Among the 132 players with at least 4,000 plate appearances between 2013 and ‘25, Bogaerts’ .329 batting average on balls in play ranked 13th.

Through his first 99 games this season, his .249 BABIP was 130th out of 145 players.

Over his past nine games, that BABIP has been .360.

“It would be nice if more can fall,” Bogaerts said. “It’s been getting better, seeing the ball better. … It’s nice (when) the balls fall rather than (being hit) right at people, or people making some nice plays. It sucks, it’s frustrating. Because for the most part of your career you’re on the other side of that. Now it’s just a little bit more of maybe a bit unlucky. So that’s very frustrating for me because, as I say, I’m used to being on the other side.”

Tidbits

It appears the Padres’ new owners will have the keys to the team by mid-August. a crucial step was taken toward that end on Monday. I wrote about that (here) yesterday morning.
The Padres would like to give 32-year-old Walker Buehler more than four days between starts, but they believe he is the best option to face the Diamondbacks on Thursday. That is largely because Arizona has the highest batting average and second-highest OPS in the major leagues against left-handed pitchers. So lefty Robbie Ray will make his Padres debut Friday at Petco Park against the Astros. Mize starts here tonight. You can read (here) about that along with some roster moves the Padres made yesterday in my pregame notebook.
Another roster decision looms today. Ray arrived at Chase Field during last night’s game and threw in front of pitching coach Ruben Niebla afterward. He has to be activated today, which almost certainly means a pitcher is going on the injured list or being designated for assignment.
Tatis has doubled in the first inning in three of his past six games. He is 4-for-6 in the first inning and 0-for 16 with four walks in every other inning in that stretch.
Merrill finished with three singles for his 29th multi-hit game, two fewer than Tatis. Merrill’s 10 games with three hits are one fewer than Tatis.
Machado was 3-for-5 with four RBIs. It was his third game this season with at least four RBIs. He is on pace for 32 home runs and 98 RBIs. Machado is due for another 30-100 season, as his last one was four years ago (32-102 in 20222) and his only other one was four years before that (37-107 in 2018).
Freddy Fermin was 2-for-5 and is batting .345 (10-for-29) since returning from the injured list on July 17. Padres catchers have hit safely in 10 consecutive games and reached base in 18 straight.
Jake Cronenworth was 3-for-5 and is batting .297/.342/.370 in 119 plate appearances since returning from the concussion IL on June 29.
Yesterday was just the sixth game this season the Padres have led after all nine innings.
You thought we would get through a newsletter without a standings update? No way. A victory tonight would move the Padres into a tie with the Diamondbacks for the final National League playoff spot. The Padres have not been in playoff position since June 27.

All right, that’s it for me.

Talk to you tomorrow.