Padres' biggest weakness on display in season's 1st loss
Padres get steamrolled in game 1, San Diego FC comments on Mo Salah potentially joining the team, Wave FC get a hometown superstar, college basketball meltdowns, and much more.
Barring injury, it is difficult to think of a game that could’ve been more collectively worrisome for San Diego Padres fans than their 8-2 loss yesterday.
The starting rotation, which is lacking a real ace and has some genuine concerns about its depth (don’t expect to see Musgrove until May at the earliest), put up its very best healthy pitcher and saw him look both rusty and impotent against the Detroit Tigers hitters.
I’m not going to sit here and pretend that the version of Nick Pivetta we saw yesterday is the version we’ll see all season. He’s quite obviously better than that, but he struggled to get his high fastball and curveball into the strike zone. That will, eventually, change.
What probably won’t change is that the Padres are without a true ace that can all-but-guarantee to keep their team competitive through most of the game before handing it over to their bullpen. That might be fine. It might be nothing. It also might be the thing that dooms this team and keeps them out of the playoffs. But there’s no way for us to know if that will happen after just one game.
And Tarik Skubal is a great pitcher, so I won’t fault the San Diego offense for looking anemic against him, but they’re going to need to be better if this team is going to go far. Could the early-season heat wave be a key to some unusual early-season offense for the Padres? Maybe!
Now, onto the links…
San Diego Padres
One game in, Padres’ rotation questions loom over everything - The Athletic
Pivetta, who skipped a recent Cactus League outing because of arm fatigue, surrendered four runs before he recorded two outs. He finally escaped the top of the first after three walks and 33 pitches, perhaps only a couple away from being pulled for left-hander Kyle Hart, who had begun warming up in the bullpen.
“We were trying to cap Nick at maybe 35 pitches in that first inning,” Craig Stammen said after a managerial debut he described as “humbling.” “Kyle was probably pretty close to (being asked) to stop the bleeding.”
Padres showed flashes, but also work to be done, on Opening Day - MLB.com
Read into it what you will. The Padres remain staunch in their belief in Pivetta. The rotation concerns come elsewhere. Joe Musgrove still hasn’t resumed throwing off a mound. At the back of the rotation, Germán Márquez and Walker Buehler come with major question marks. Even Michael King hasn’t looked like himself since last May.
In no uncertain terms, the Padres need Pivetta. A start like this one -- for a rotation as thin as this one -- felt ominous.
Nightmare start for Nick Pivetta, Padres in opening-day loss to Tigers - San Diego Union-Tribune
Their only hopeful moment, such as it was, came in the eighth inning. That is when they got within a grand slam of being down two runs by loading the bases on a single and two walks against Tyler Holton. But pinch-hitter Nick Castellanos flied out to center field in his first at-bat with the Padres.
Here are 4 San Diego Padres’ prospects to watch in 2026 - The Athletic
Rodriguez’s latest big-league stint — he debuted in 2025, allowing one run across seven relief appearances — might not last long. He has minor-league options, and someone in the bullpen figures to be squeezed out when setup man Jason Adam comes off the injured list. Then again, Rodriguez’s stuff is good enough that he could stick for a while, giving the Padres another potent arm in a top-shelf bullpen. More evidence arrived Thursday, when Rodriguez threw two perfect innings in the Padres’ season-opening loss.
San Diego FC / San Diego Wave FC
‘The decision is the fit and the style of play’ - San Diego FC owner Mohamed Mansour distances MLS club from Liverpool forward - GOAL.com
San Diego FC owner Mohamed Mansour said he would welcome the chance to sign Liverpool legend Mohamed Salah this summer, but added the club would need to assess whether he is the right fit tactically. San Diego are among several MLS teams linked with the winger, though a move to the Saudi Pro League appears more likely.
USWNT’s Catarina Macario joins San Diego Wave from Chelsea - The Athletic
San Diego Wave FC has announced the signing of U.S. women’s national team striker Catarina Macario from Chelsea.
Macario, who was the USWNT’s top goal scorer in 2025, will return to her hometown of San Diego on a contract to 2030.
The Wave activated the National Women’s Soccer League’s (NWSL’s) new High Impact Player rule, which allows clubs to spend up to $1 million above the salary cap on those who qualify, to acquire the 26-year-old.
Odds & Ends
Men’s March Madness 2026 takeaways: Purdue, Iowa, Illinois, Arizona advance to Elite Eight - The Athletic
No. 3 seed Illinois held off No. 2 Houston 65-55 in the nightcap of the South Regional semifinal in what was essentially a home game for the Cougars. After a low-scoring first half between the teams, Illinois exploded offensively to take a double-digit lead and never looked back. The Illini will face Iowa in a Big Ten showdown Saturday for a spot in the Final Four.
In the West, top-seeded Arizona routed Arkansas 109-88 as the Wildcats continue their impressive season. Arizona was rolling in the first half, taking a 54-43 lead into halftime. The Wildcats scored more than 100 points for the fourth time this season. Arizona will face Purdue on Saturday.
The No. 2 seed Boilermakers advanced earlier in the day by outlasting No. 11 Texas 79-77, advancing to the Elite Eight for the seventh time in program history. Purdue big man Trey Kaufman-Renn tipped in Braden Smith’s missed layup with 0.7 seconds remaining, and the Longhorns’ desperation heave at the buzzer was too strong.
In the South, Iowa defeated Nebraska 77-71 to reach the Elite Eight for the first time since 1987. Nebraska held a mere three-point lead at halftime, but Iowa took control when it mattered — inside the final two minutes of the game.
Fred Hoiberg Really Fucked Up - Defector
An intense and otherwise beautifully played Iowa-Nebraska game was decided by one of the most bizarre coaching boners in recent March Madness history and maybe ever. Nebraska had only four players on the court coming out of a timeout, with just under a minute left and Iowa up 71-68. Iowa center Alvaro Folgueiras exploited the Huskers’ heads-up-their-asses defensive scheme and ran a post pattern, and inbounder Kael Combs hit him in stride with a court-length bomb. Folgueiras powered through a desperation chase-down foul from Nebraska’s Berke Buyuktuncel to sink a layup, and the ensuing plus-one gave Iowa a six-point lead they never relinquished. The final score of the South Region tilt, played in Houston, was 77-71.
Sources: NBA presents 3 comprehensive anti-tanking proposals - ESPN
The NBA presented three comprehensive anti-tanking concepts to its board of governors Wednesday as part of this week’s meetings in New York, with modifications expected to each before a formal vote in May, sources told ESPN’s Shams Charania.
Each of the three proposals would be radical departures from the current setup. They have one thing in common: bringing teams that make the playoffs into the lottery process. From there, they change dramatically.
Is MLB’s Challenge System Already Doomed? - The Ringer
There’s a darker timeline that would also bring about a full ABS takeover. Blown ball/strike calls in the WBC semifinal matchup between the U.S. and the D.R.—including a game-ending howler of a strike call on Geraldo Perdomo—were understandably seen as arguments in favor of ABS. The next WBC will almost certainly feature the challenge system. But there’s no guarantee that a big game won’t end the same way in MLB because a team is out of challenges. Plus, much as replay review sometimes imposes an awkward delay before a seemingly victorious team can celebrate, the challenge system will sometimes overturn what initially appear to be game-ending strikeouts or walks. What if a World Series ended on a tap-off? That specific scenario is unlikely, but full ABS would remove the risk. If human umps aren’t making calls in the first place, those calls will never need to be reversed.