Padres Star Gets Brutally Honest on Nick Pivetta's Opening Day Struggles

Opening Day of the 2026 season was one to forget for the San Diego Padres as they lost to the Detroit Tigers by a score of 8-2. There was real optimism around this club before first pitch, but before fans could even get comfortable, Detroit took a four-run lead.

Right-hander Nick Pivetta got lit up in the first inning, and the entire vibe of the game was pretty much over from there. With ace Tarik Skubal on the mound for Detroit, this strong start made it very tough for San Diego to come back.

Pivetta was removed from the game after just three innings, giving up six runs, seven hits and three walks while only striking out four batters. This wasn't the performance that anyone in San Diego was hoping for, especially after the strong 2025 season that Pivetta put together.

Veteran infielder Xander Bogaerts discussed the outing after the game, and he gave his honest thoughts while backing up his teammate.

“Nick didn’t pitch the way he normally pitches,” Bogaerts said. “I don’t know. He might not have the feel for his pitches because he wasn’t close to being as sharp as he normally is, and that kind of sucked a little bit for him, because he normally commands all of his pitches pretty well. But today he couldn’t go to any one of his pitches. They were all just very unlike him. But he’ll bounce back. I mean, he’s Nick.”

The comments from Bogaerts show that this team is connected, even in defeat, which could bode well for the season. But the squad will need Pivetta to pitch much better going forward amid all of the uncertainty within the starting rotation this year.

Pivetta was expected to be a catalyst for the starting rotation, so this outing is a little concerning. But at the end of the day, it's just one game, and there will be other chances for him to show out this season.

“I would love that game back,” Pivetta said. “But that’s not reality. That’s not how the world works. Just look to capitalize on a couple days off that I have here, get a good bullpen sesh, get back to who I am.”

Pivetta fully broke out with the Padres a year ago, making 31 starts for the team while putting up an ERA of 2.87 overall. The right-hander led the team in wins (13) and innings pitched (182.1) a year ago while striking out 190 batters.

San Diego will hope for better results from Pivetta next time he takes the mound, as he'll be relied upon to lead a rotation full of question marks in 2026.