Petco Park- San Diego

It was a foggy evening at Petco Park, but the odd conditions didn’t stop the Padres’ bats from stringing together 12 hits and piling up seven runs to improve to 5-0 on the year.

Kyle Hart had a solid showing in his debut, striking out four and allowing two runs on a pair of roundtrippers of the Jose Ramirez and longtime Padre Austin Hedges. He was aided by some stellar defense from Jackson Merrill and Fernando Tatis Jr. but took care of business when he needed to, as three of his strikeouts were inning-enders.

Across the MLB, breaking balls are quickly rising in usage, but Hart took it to another level. Fifty-three of his offerings were breaking or offspeed, and he threw just 27 fastballs. He was in the zone 63% of the time, and the stuff was there. His changeup and sweeper both averaged out to 17″ of horizontal break in their respective directions.

The highlight of the outing was yet another wild double play. Kyle Hart stepped off to thwart a steal attempt from Gabriel Arias and Austin Hedges. Hart tossed the ball to Manny Machado for the tag at third, but instead of running around him, Gabriel Arias essentially gave the third baseman a hug, preventing him from throwing the ball to second. As a result, umpire John Bacon ruled Austin Hedges out at second, quickly flipping the script of Hart’s final inning.

On the bump for the Guardians was Luis L. Ortiz. San Diego saw Ortiz twice last season with Pittsburgh, in which he posted a 4.91 ERA across the two appearances. Ortiz, a heavy ground ball pitcher, induced three of them to start the night, cruising to a 1-2-3 first inning. Jackson Merrill kicked off the second with a rope of a single, which was followed by back-back walks. With the bases loaded, Gavin Sheets unleashed an 86.1 mph swing on the first pitch, roping a fastball over the head of Jhonkesy Noel in right field to drive in two runs. Jason Heyward followed him with a sacrifice fly to right, to tack on a third run. Elias Diaz went down swinging, but Fernando Tatis Jr. came through with a clutch two-out single into the left-center gap.

The scoring ceased for a couple of innings until Gavin Sheets was at it again in the fifth, as he looped another four-seamer from Ortiz down the left field line this time, driving in a pair once again. Before recording the RBI knock, “Holy Sheets” chants rained down from Petco Park. He finished the night 3-3 with a walk, building on the impressive start to his Padres tenure. Jason Heyward came through once more to follow, flying a double to the gap to add a run and notch his first hit of the season.

Speaking of first hits, Luis Arraez finally got on the board with a liner past the second baseman Gabriel Arias.

Manny Machado collected three hits and a lineout to right, as well as a stolen base. Fernando Tatis Jr. also collected a multi-hit night, as he capped off his night with an 110.8 MPH single to left.

Lastly, the bullpen continued their dominance. Alek Jacob worked around some traffic to notch a scoreless frame in the sixth. Yuki Matsui struck out the side in the seventh. Interestingly, Mike Shildt went with Adrian Morejon for the eighth and Wandy Peralta to close out the ninth. It worked out, however, as the southpaws proceeded to toss scoreless frames to cap the win.

San Diego is off to their first 5-0 start in franchise history. The pitching and defense have been incredible, limiting opponents to 1.8 runs per game to this point. San Diego has also been able to produce offense from everywhere, despite Arraez’s funky start.

The squads will be back at it for game two tomorrow. The work-in-progress Logan Allen is expected to go for Cleveland, while Michael King will get the ball for San Diego as he looks to bounce back from his rocky Opening Day start.

San Diego should have a good chance to grab their second series of the season.

The first pitch is scheduled for 6:40 PM.

Willy Warren

A 17-year-old San Diego native, Willy Warren is a baseball fan at heart who created High Leverage Baseball, a combination of around-the-league statistical analysis and breakdowns on X, and daily newsletters on the TikTok platform. Willy passionately studies Journalism at San Dieguito Academy, and is working to become billingual in Spanish to assist in communicating with Latin-born players and coaches.