Padres sweep Rockies, Pivetta leaves with elbow tightness
Padres keep winning but Pivetta's elbow looms large, SDFC can't stop picking up red cards, Rory is the first to win back-to-back Masters since Tiger, an NBA Playoffs preview and more!
The San Diego Padres have won five consecutive games. They’ve also won eight of their last nine, winning road series in Boston and Pittsburgh before coming home to sweep the Rockies in a four-game series at Petco Park.
Craig Stammen, the team’s manager who had never managed before getting the job this offseason, spent the weekend trying out Fernando Tatis Jr. at a position he had never played before at the MLB level (2B) and maybe helped him mentally break out of his early-season hitting slump. Reminder, he did this in the middle of a winning streak.
As far as early season returns go, the Padres were riding high after stumbling out of the gate. They’re in 2nd place in the NL West with a 10-6 record after starting the season 2-5. Stammen’s pressing all the right buttons. The vibes, which had grown rancid under Mike Shildt the last two seasons, feel like they are turning around (with some help from back-to-back walk-off home runs against the Rockies).
So, of course the team was due some bad news. Or, at the very least, a scare. And that led us to yesterday, when an under-the-weather Nick Pivetta didn’t quite look himself before being taken out of the game by Stammen and the Padres team trainer with a diagnosis of “elbow stiffness”. Hopefully, that’s all it is.
And credit to the Padres for once again winning easily against the Rockies after Pivetta’s exit. That’s not always the easiest mental transition to make for a baseball team. Starting tomorrow (after a rare day off without travel), we’ll get to see if this little run San Diego is on is a sign of great things to come for the Padres or a sign of utter doom this season for the Rockies and Pirates.
Now, onto the links…
San Diego Padres
Nick Pivetta leaves with elbow stiffness, Padres complete sweep of Rockies - San Diego Union-Tribune
Ty France hit his first home run at Petco Park in more than five years. Ramón Laureano and Jackson Merrill added shots late. The Padres paired their burgeoning slug with small-ball sensibilities in a 7-2 win that extended their win streak to five games and upped their total to 10.
Only the two-time World Series champion Dodgers have more.
Yet amid all the positives in a four-game sweep of the Colorado Rockies, the Padres’ biggest question mark got all that more complicated on a gloomy Sunday afternoon at Petco Park.
Admittedly under the weather to start the game, right-hander Nick Pivetta walked off the mound with a trainer in the top of the fourth inning with elbow stiffness, casting quite the shadow on the turnaround following the team’s 2-5 start to the season.
Padres’ Nick Pivetta leaves game with elbow stiffness - The Athletic
Pivetta said his injury was “not correlated” to the elbow flexor strain that sidelined him for a month in 2024, when he pitched for the Boston Red Sox. Meanwhile, Stammen likened the latest ailment to what Pivetta felt last month, when he skipped a Cactus League start because of what the team, at the time, described as arm fatigue.
“Very similar; it’s the same thing,” said Stammen, who added that Pivetta’s elbow gradually stiffened as Sunday’s game progressed. “I think we caught it early enough this time. Hopefully, things will be all right, but anytime it’s someone’s elbow, especially a pitcher, it’s reason for caution. And that’s probably why we took him out of the game when we did.”
Final member of Power Rankings Top 5 rocketed up 14 spots - MLB.com
5. Padres (previously: 19)
For all the great pitching going on in baseball right now, there continues to be no one better than Mason Miller, who on Friday night ran his streak to 28 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings, five short of the franchise record. His 79.2 % strikeout rate was the highest by a pitcher in his first seven appearances of a season since at least 1900. "I love that that guy is on our team,” said teammate Gavin Sheets.
Trust - Letters to A.J.
The trust Craig Stammen placed on the shoulders of Luis Campusano, and how Campusano answered his manager’s call was a watershed moment. And Stammen commented after the game that Campusano’s impeccable defensive play was something he’d specifically been working on daily in fielding practice.
And there’s a sense that Campusano’s tantalizing offensive prowess may still materialize at the major league level.
While a player can’t firmly establish himself as a true major league catcher in a single game, a team can firmly establish that they’ve placed trust in a player with a single decision such as the Padres showed Campusano Thursday night. And trust is a prerequisite to a player reaching their potential.
San Diego FC
Another Red Card, Another Loss: SDFC Falls to Minnesota - SDFC Nation
The second half could not have started any worse for SDFC. In the 46th minute, Chris McVey followed through with his cleats and caught the Minnesota player. The challenge resulted in a second yellow card that saw McVey get sent off. Another match - another red card for SDFC.
Minnesota United hands short-handed San Diego FC second straight loss - San Diego Union-Tribune
McVey was sent off in SDFC’s 2-2 MLS Cup draw against Real Salt Lake on March 22, four days after receiving a pair of yellow cards in the Concacaf Champions Cup loss at Toluca.
McVey’s three contribute to a staggering stretch of six red cards issued across each of SDFC’s last six matches. The club won the first leg against Toluca despite playing nearly the entire match down a man, with Marcus Ingvartsen booked in the 12th minute of the March 11 contest. Manu Duah, sent off later in the same match, received a red card in last week’s 3-0 MLS Cup loss at San Jose; he did not play Saturday.
“Way too many times, it’s been catastrophic for us,” team captain Jeppe Tverskov said. “We can keep the ball, but really, we miss [having] one guy higher up the line so to really break through and it’s more difficult to move forward up the pitch.”
The 2026 Masters
Rory McIlroy wins Masters, first to repeat since Tiger Woods - ESPN
Rory McIlroy had to wait more than a decade to win the Masters and complete the career Grand Slam.
He had to wait only a year to take home a second green jacket.
After squandering a record six-stroke lead in Saturday’s third round, McIlroy briefly lost the lead again Sunday before taking control on the second nine at Augusta National to become the first back-to-back Masters champion since Tiger Woods in 2001-02 and the fourth overall (Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo).
Masters 2026: Only one question remains for Rory McIlroy — how high will he climb among golf’s all-time greats? - Yahoo Sports
With two Masters victories in the last 12 months, McIlroy has firmly planted himself among the 10 best golfers of all time. For the next decade or so, only one question matters: How high can he climb?
At the very moment it appeared he might not even be remembered as the best player among his contemporaries — before last year’s Masters, Brooks Koepka had five majors while Scottie Scheffler with two was just entering his prime — McIlroy found a new gear.
Now the picture looks rather different.
Rory McIlroy Does It the Hard Way (Again) - The Ringer
Now there are only four men who have won the Masters back-to-back: Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo, Tiger Woods, and Rory McIlroy. The tradition at the Masters is that the previous victor puts the green jacket on the new one. It’s so rare for there to be a repeat winner that I couldn’t remember how the Butler Cabin ceremony would even work. Would Rory put the jacket on himself? Would Scheffler, the winner previous to Rory, tag in for a second year? Nothing so satisfying, as it turns out. Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley put the jacket on him instead.
Odds & Ends
NBA playoffs 2026: Previewing all 20 teams still vying for the title - ESPN
Can the Lakers stay alive in the playoffs long enough for Doncic and Reaves to return from their respective injuries? The Lakers’ late-season momentum came to a screeching halt on April 2 in Oklahoma City when Doncic suffered a Grade 2 left hamstring strain, Reaves suffered a Grade 2 left oblique muscle injury and the Thunder pounded the Lakers by 43. Can LeBron James shift back from the third option and lead L.A. to wins while those guys are on the mend?
World Cup tune-ups coming to Snapdragon Stadium - San Diego Union-Tribune
The World Cup isn’t coming to San Diego this summer, but World Cup teams are.
Switzerland and New Zealand have selected the city for their pre-tournament training bases, and a pair of tune-ups involving three other World Cup participants are scheduled for Snapdragon Stadium the week before they start playing for real.
Switzerland will face Australia on June 6.
A day later, Colombia will face Jordan.
Tickets are expected to go on sale to the general public next week, although premium seat holders at Snapdragon have been given the option of purchasing tickets early.
Skateboarding ‘mecca’ of San Diego produces three top picks in inaugural X Games League draft - Times of San Diego
Three San Diego-area skateboarders — Tate Carew (San Diego), Bryce Wettstein (Encinitas) and Tom Schaar (Cardiff) — were drafted last month into the inaugural MoonPay X Games League (XGL), joining 37 other top action sports athletes in the first-ever co-ed, team-based X Games competition.
Wettstein and Carew were both selected by X Games Club New York. Additional franchises are based in Los Angeles, Tokyo and São Paulo. The XGL spans a full season, with each club fielding 10 athletes — five men and five women — chosen through the draft, held March 12 at Cosm in L.A, A free agent pool is also available.