PEORIA, Ariz. \u2014 There are numerous reasons that scoring early is beneficial.<\/p>\n
Teams that score first win nearly 70% of major league games.<\/p>\n
So there is that.<\/p>\n
But getting more granular from a hitter\u2019s perspective, the pitcher that works the start of a game is the one they will see the most often and may be the only one who won\u2019t be throwing every fastball at 98 mph or faster.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to come off the gate hauling ass, putting pressure right away,\u201d Fernando Tatis Jr. said. \u201cThat probably will be the easiest pitcher we face. So we better get out of the gate going.\u201d<\/p>\n
Starting games quicker is a point of emphasis for the Padres as they head into the 2026 season, which begins Thursday against the Detroit Tigers at Petco Park.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe relievers that get thrown out there \u2026 you don\u2019t really want to face those guys,\u201d manager Craig Stammen said. \u201cSo getting runs early, especially for our club, is going to be a big deal. It\u2019ll lead to a lot of success.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Padres have firsthand knowledge of how effective relief pitchers can be. Their bullpen led the major leagues with a 3.06 ERA last season. Moreover, the Padres\u2019 64-5 record when leading after six innings was the best in the major leagues.<\/p>\n
But they ranked 18th in runs scored in the first six innings of games in 2025. And, significantly, the 69 games in which they led after six innings were 19 fewer than the Cubs, 17 fewer than the Yankees and Phillies, 13 fewer than the Dodgers and Brewers and nine fewer than the Blue Jays.<\/p>\n
Those teams all finished with better overall records than the Padres \u2014 and in no small part because they gave themselves a better chance to do so from the start.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think No. 1 is, we\u2019ve got a great bullpen,\u201d Stammen said of scoring early. \u201cAnd so if we can play the game with the lead, we\u2019ll be in good shape. It\u2019s almost like a (football) team that has a really good running game. If we can somehow sneak out to a lead, we can just milk the clock and run out the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Padres\u2019 goal of being better early in games will get some steep tests at the beginning of the season.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ll face both reigning Cy Young award winners in their first 11 games.<\/p>\n
Opening day sees Tarik Skubal on the mound for the Tigers, with Framber Valdez going the next day. Skubal has won the past two American League Cy Young awards, and Valdez finished in the top 10 every year from 2022 to 2024.<\/p>\n
After facing San Francisco Giants ace Logan Webb in the finale of the season\u2019s second series, the Padres seem likely to miss Garrett Crochet in Boston. But they are lined up to face Sonny Gray in the opener of a three-game series at Fenway Park on April 3. The AL\u2019s Cy Young runner-up in 2023 has won all four of his career starts against the Padres, though he won despite allowing them seven runs in five innings while pitching for the St. Louis Cardinals last July.<\/p>\n
And in the Padres\u2019 fourth series, something is poised to happen that has not happened before. That is when they will almost certainly face Paul Skenes for the first time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re stacked up against some guys that throw the ball really well,\u201d Gavin Sheets said. \u201cI think those are games that you come out and you just try to chip away right from the beginning, and that\u2019s all you do. You\u2019re not going out trying to put the big swing right away, but you\u2019re trying to put a lot of pressure on them, trying to get on base, trying to do stuff on the base paths. Those are games you\u2019re looking to win 2-1, 3-1, whatever it takes. You try to get a run every inning and just grind every at-bat.\u201d<\/p>\n
In general, the Padres believe their lineup is deeper this season than it has been as the start of most recent campaigns.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf our guys are hot, we\u2019ll line up against anybody,\u201d hitting coach Steven Souza Jr. said. \u201cIf we\u2019re locked in, like, it is what it is, our game plan will be our game plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
Planning is at the heart of how the Padres intend to strike quicker this season.<\/p>\n
Players have complimented the type and detail of information they are receiving this spring. And during the season, the idea will be for that information to prepare them better for the starting pitcher.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s understanding what he does first time through the order, his repertoire, and how he\u2019s gonna pitch,\u201d Souza said. \u201cIt\u2019s about having a good head start on what you want to game plan for instead of taking the\u00a0 first time through the order to understand what he does.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PEORIA, Ariz. \u2014 There are numerous reasons that scoring early is beneficial. Teams that score first win nearly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[181,1334,74,76,75,2611,127,1696],"class_list":{"0":"post-232160","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-latest-headlines","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-san-diego","11":"tag-san-diego-headlines","12":"tag-san-diego-news","13":"tag-san-diego-padres","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-top-stories-sdut"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}