BOSTON — Germán Márquez allowed four runs on eight hits and a walk in three innings in his Padres debut. He struck out just one and fetched just two whiffs. He’d got just two swing-and-misses in a game once last year and just one whiff three times in his career.
That seemingly left a lot to work on before Monday’s scheduled start in Pittsburgh.
The 31-year-old focus, however, was singular in his between-start work with pitching coach Ruben Niebla: Márquez was tipping everything, so much so that the team was impressed that the damage off him wasn’t more severe in a 9-3 loss last Wednesday.
“I was tipping a couple pitches,” Márquez said Sunday morning. “I was working with Ruben in the bullpen to make sure I’m not tipping. I’ve been watching videos.”
The Giants hit his sinker (3-for-4, HR) and knuckle curveball (3-for-7, 2B, HR) especially hard in that game. As an All-Star in 2021 — well before the Tommy John surgery that derailed the end of his stay with the Rockies — Márquez allowed a .144 average off that knuckle curve.
The Padres not only addressed the tipping in Márquez’s bullpen session, they believe they’ve got measures they can take should he slip into old habits with what had become tells in his delivery and/or set-up.
“I’m ready to go and prepared for the next one,” Márquez said. “I’m ready to compete.”
Poppin’
Luis Campusano’s double off the Green Monster on Friday tied the game. Freddy Fermin’s double into the left-field corner on Saturday gave the Padres a lead. The Padres are banking on more of that to lengthen the lineup for the top of an order that is also not living up to expectations, but the Padres catchers have continued to provide value on defense throughout their sluggish start to the season.
Entering Sunday, Fermin and Campusano ranked seventh among teams catchers with 0.8 defensive runs above average, according to Fangraphs.com. It’s a small sample, to be sure, but the catching room has placed an emphasis on contributing on both sides of the ball regardless of what they are doing with a bat in their hands.
“(The offense is) going to come,” Padres catching coach Kevin Plawecki said. “But like we talk about all the time, separate the offense from the defense, and they’re doing that. Focus on the defensive end, giving us a chance to win all these games. And, you know, we’re going to keep plugging away, and the offense will come.”
The contributions are coming in all sorts of ways.
The two catchers are a combined 5-for-9 in Automated Ball-Strike challenges, although the spots they’ve picked have been timely if not on the conservative side in volume. They’re also tied for seventh with a 33% caught-stealing rate (2-for-6), and they’ve been among the quickest to second base so far this season.
Campusano’s 1.93-second average pop time to second base is eighth-best in the majors. Fermin’s average is a tick off that pace (1.93), but the runner he threw out at second base on Saturday at 1.87 seconds was the fourth-fastest successful caught-stealing at second base this season.
Expect more of that to come.
Fermin, after all, led the majors with a 44.7% caught-stealing rate in 2024.
“He’s just athletic,” Plawecki said. “The way that he moves and his body works, it allows him to get out and get in a stance to get pretty much everything he’s got behind the ball, and he’s really accurate. So, yeah, it’s a good combination for him and for us.”
Fermin is 2-for-17 with two walks at the plate. He gave way on Sunday to Campusano, who went 1-for-3 with a run scored and is 2-for-10 on the season.
Reid Bolton, left, caught Padres third baseman Manny Machado’s first home run of the season while seated atop the Green Monster at Fenway Park on April 5, 2026. Bolton, who grew up in Del Mar and now lives in Buffalo, attended the game with wife Nicole. (Jeff Sanders / San Diego Union-Tribune)
Manny thanks
Reid Bolton, 46, grew up in Del Mar, but has since relocated to Buffalo, New York. He and his wife, Nicole, plan to eventually make their way to all 30 MLB parks, but after watching his Padres — yes his Padres; she’s a Blue Jays fan — from seats along the first-base side of Fenway Park, they decided to upgrade on Sunday to seats on top of the Green Monster.
The price: “A couple hundred bucks a spot,” Bolton said.
Little did he know it would come with a souvenir: Manny Machado’s go-ahead home run in the sixth inning, his first of the year, sailed directly into his hands in the third row.
“Right on the fly,” Reid Bolton said. “Not even in any pain. The wedding ring helped. Extra grip.”
He added: “It’s worth it. We came here (Saturday). We got tickets last minute. We sat on the first base side, but there’s nothing like sitting on the Monster. We had to do it at least once.”
Notable
OF Ramón Laureano was the third different leadoff hitter used in nine games. The Padres entered Sunday with a .367 OPS from the leadoff spot, worst in the majors and 30 points below the second-worst team (Pirates). Laureano went 0-for-5 with a walk on Sunday from atop the order.