Four hours before the game’s first pitch, the search continued.

Fernando Tatis Jr. swatted soft tosses from 30 feet away, as part of an early batting session with three teammates and hitting coach Steven Souza Jr.

“They’re working every day with Fernando,” said manager Craig Stammen, providing context. “Today wasn’t the first day.”

One difference: “You just got to see it on the field,” Stammen told a reporter.

Tatis and Souza have carried out the same drills they performed Tuesday in several indoor hitting sessions over the past few weeks.

“They maybe haven’t done it on the field, where you get to see ball flight,’’ Stammen said. “That might have been a little bit of a change.”

It’s not unusual for big-league hitters to do extra work indoors. Later, much closer to first pitch, they’ll take swings on the field.

Tuesday’s leisurely and lengthy outdoor session seemed a favorable step for Tatis, who went into the game’s first at-bat without a home run since Sept. 27, his longest such drought.

While working on his stroke under the afternoon sun in an empty ballpark, wearing shorts, a basketball jersey and a backwards baseball cap, the right-hander was able to watch several of his high drives land beyond the center-field wall.

He saw a liner slam off the second-deck facade beyond left field.

Staying through other swings, he heard his pull shots bang off the left-field seats.

Souza, protected by a screen, underhanded the pitches to various spots. The coach chatted with Tatis a few times.

“It’s just a drill that takes out the speed of the arm and having to track the arm, and just allows the baseball to be in the hitting zone,” Stammen said. “So, they can work more specifically on his mechanics.”

A notable aspect of the career-long home run drought Tatis took into Tuesday’s game is that he has pulled the ball far less often this year and almost never has lofted a ball to left field.

Although he’s hit the ball hard at a higher rate than most big leaguers, he woke up Tuesday with a .273 slug rate, zero home runs, five doubles and a triple in the 172 at-bats.

He’d slugged .513 for his career entering this year.

“He’s been working very hard in the cage over the last few weeks,” Stammen said. “Hopefully, we’ll see some of those results pan out on the field — but I know he’s never going to stop working.”

Teammates Nick Castellanos, Freddy Fermin and Ramon Laureano hit with Tatis in the early session.

Castellanos has a few things in common with Tatis. They’re both 6-foot-3 righties who’ve hit a lot of home runs — 253 for the 34-year-old Castellanos, who’s in his 14th season; and 152 for Tatis, who’s in his seventh season.

Castellanos, who joined the team in spring training, has his locker next to Tatis.

Last month, as reporters prepared to chat with Tatis, Castellanos did a mock interview with the young star, asking for insights into right-field defense.

Tatis got a few laughs out of it, and the video got a lot of attention on social media.

Over the decades, dozens of Padres hitters who were counted on to supply power have gone through lengthy home run droughts.

And Petco Park played very large during its early day.

Righty slugger Khalil Greene, exasperated that he’d lost his good power stroke and had seen several drives stall out at night in deep left-center, stopped taking batting practice on the field before several games.

Ryan Ludwick went through a mental funk that Tatis might find comparably difficult.

Obtained by the Padres during the 2010 playoff race from the National League Central, where the hitting conditions were much friendlier than at Petco Park — where the outfield was much bigger than it is now — Ludwick unwittingly lengthened his swing, creating bad results. The onetime St. Louis Cardinals standout lost a lot of the power that had inspired the Padres to trade for him.

Late in the year, Ludwick said the ballpark messed with his mind.

Tatis is in higher class of hitter.

He hit 25, 21 and 25 home runs the past three seasons after missing the 2022 season due to injuries and an 80-game suspension for testing positive for a banned performance-enhancing substance. In 2021, his first full season with the Padres, he hit 42 home runs and slugged .611.

“Lightning bat speed, power, athleticism,” recalled a veteran scout.

Calling him “such a talented hitter,” the scout said Tatis will figure it out.