Padres Quietly Dealing With Concerning Trend Against Starting Pitchers

Are the Padres getting the memo about when the game begins?

San Diego Padres second baseman Fernando Tatis Jr. (23) hits a single during the third inning against the Chicago White Sox at Petco Park on May 1, 2026. | Denis Poroy-Imagn Images

The San Diego Padres' lineup issues have been discussed and dissected just about every way possible to this point in the season — and for good reason. At .667, the Padres rank 28th in MLB in OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage).

It might be somewhat surprising, then, to learn the Padres are a cut above the rest of the league in one particular hitting category. Their OPS against relief pitchers (.735) is more than 100 points higher than their OPS against starters (.616).

As measured by OPS+, the Padres are 8 percent better than league average against relievers and 27 percent below against starters — the widest disparity of its kind in MLB.

The San Diego Union-Tribune presented this factoid to the Padres' hitting coach, Steven Souza Jr., but got nothing by way of a plausible explanation.

“I really don’t have a good answer on that one,” Souza said. “… You can get a little impatient because the starter is not going to do the same thing every time. And if you’re asking the hitting staff to say, ‘Hey, this is exactly what he’s going to do,’ that’s impossible.’

"But we give them individual game plans, and give them overall. And I think for the majority of this year, they’ve done a really, really good job. I just think this is a stretch of baseball.”

All things being equal, it would be better for the Padres to master hitting opposing starters, since they tend to pitch the majority of the innings.

Breaking the issue down further, the Padres can nitpick both their game-planning and their ability to make in-game adjustments.

Facing the opposing starter the first time through the order, they're slashing .180/.239/.264. That .504 OPS means, in effect, every team is turning the Padres into a team full of Allen Cordobas — until the second time through the order, when the in-game adjustments start to show up.

The Padres' collective OPS ticks up to .709 the second time through the order, a shade below league average. Then, it appears opposing starters adjust back. The Padres have a .689 OPS against starters the third time through the order — 16 percent below league average.

Given their talent, and their ability to hit relief pitching, it's clear the Padres have the talent to improve their stats against opposing starters. But it's getting to the point in the season where a luck issue is less plausible an explanation than game-planning.

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