Padres take series in Boston, head to Pittsburgh

The Padres win their first road series of the season, San Diego FC can't get out of their own way, UCLA & Michigan dominate in the NCAA tournaments, Cooper Flagg makes a ROY statement, and more!

There are few things more amusing than long-discussed expectations being shifted a week into the start of a season.

In the case of San Diego Padres manager Craig Stammen, who had never managed before taking the job, it seems the rhetoric has gone from “He’s watched a million baseball games, he knows how they work” to “He’ll have a chance to get his feet wet while managing these Spring Training games” to “He’s a fast learner! Things will be better soon!”

This isn’t meant to be a criticism of Stammen, who I think is handling a difficult situation well, so far. And, while I do find it odd that such an important season for the franchise rests on the hope that Stammen is in fact a fast learner, it’s hard to knock the Padres winning three of their last four games (including a series win in Boston against what should be a good Red Sox team).

The bullpen decisions need work. That much is obvious. But the attempted personality of this year’s team seems to be acceptance of issues and an effort to improve, rather than the last few years of stubborn arrogance. I’m counting that as a win, at least from a fan standpoint.

Now, onto the links…

San Diego Padres

Trust the process: Machado and Merrill jolt Padres’ slumping bats - MLB.com
The Padres won a dramatic series finale over the Red Sox on Sunday afternoon, a come-from-behind 8-6 victory at a cold and rainy Fenway Park. Machado put the Padres in front with a three-run homer in the fifth. After Boston rallied to tie the game, childhood Red Sox fan Jackson Merrill won it in the eighth with a go-ahead blast into the Green Monster seats.

Amazing what a couple of clutch home runs will do for a slumping offense.

Padres’ Manny Machado Addresses Viral Kicking Incident During Red Sox Game - Sports Illustrated
In the top of the fourth inning, Machado followed hits by Fernando Tatis Jr. and Jackson Merrill with one of his own. Red Sox catcher Carlos Narváez then tried to pick Machado off at first base, and he collided with the ball, kicking it into foul play and allowing himself and Merrill to advance to second and third. Both later scored on a two-run single by Nick Castellanos.

The Red Sox argued that Machado intentionally kicked the ball. Machado denied those allegations.

“Nah, I mean, I’m trying to get out of the way,” Machado said after the game. “It was perfect timing. ... I couldn’t be better than that.”

He jokingly added: “I think I picked the wrong sport. [San Diego] FC should probably sign me up.”

Roman Anthony: Red Sox’s start ‘unacceptable’ for fans, team - ESPN
The Boston Red Sox fell to a major-league-worst 2-7 on Sunday, tying the weakest start through nine games in the franchise’s long history.

Some “sell the team” chants could be heard at Fenway Park in the ninth inning of their latest defeat, an 8-6 setback to the San Diego Padres.

Young slugger Roman Anthony said afterward that fans have every right to be upset.

Padres notebook: Márquez’s tipping point, Padres catchers popping, a Machado souvenir - San Diego Union-Tribune
Germán Márquez allowed four runs on eight hits and a walk in three innings in his Padres debut. He struck out just one and fetched just two whiffs. He’d gotten just two swing-and-misses in a game once last year and just one whiff three times in his career.

That seemingly left a lot to work on before Monday’s scheduled start in Pittsburgh.

The 31-year-old’s focus, however, was singular in his between-start work with pitching coach Ruben Niebla: Márquez was tipping everything, so much so that the team was impressed that the damage off him wasn’t more severe in a 9-3 loss last Wednesday.

Padres minors: Jason Adam goes back-to-back, JP Sears wild in El Paso loss - San Diego Union-Tribune
Check the back-to-back off Jason Adam’s rehab to-do list.

The 34-year-old reliever walked two but pitched a scoreless inning in his first back-to-back appearance on Sunday in Triple-A El Paso’s 6-5 loss at Tacoma.

Adam is continuing to work back from last year’s season-ending quad surgery. He has turned in three scoreless innings on his rehab assignment with Triple-A El Paso and could be activated as soon as April 8, although it’s possible the Padres wait until they return to Petco Park on April 9.

NCAA Tournament

Michigan Is Nasty - Defector
Arizona is the best team Michigan has beaten this season, and this was their most important win. It was impressive in every facet, none more so than how non-negotiable it all felt. Michigan simply threw its kind of party and refused to let Arizona in. “When we have fun,” Mara said after the game, “it’s hard to beat us.” It feels foolish to single any one bit of awe out from the rest, here, and it would be premature to crown Michigan before the crowning is done. But what was most striking about Saturday’s win was how much it felt like every other Michigan game—one wave after another pulling the tide up the beach, all perfectly natural and seemingly as close to inexorable as any of this gets.

The Winners and Losers of the Men’s Final Four - The Ringer
Hurley can be a bit of a shithead on the sideline—and his antics have directly led to losses and nearly cost his team this trip to the Final Four—but we can’t let that overshadow this historic run he’s been on these past four seasons. Connecticut is a staggering 18-1 in the past four NCAA tournaments, and that lone blemish was a two-point loss to the eventual title winners. If Hurley can finish the job on Monday night, he’ll have three rings. We have quite literally never seen anything like this in modern college basketball. Maintaining this level of excellence in the most chaotic era of roster building makes the feat even more impressive.

UCLA blows out South Carolina for first women’s NCAA title - ESPN
The Bruins beat South Carolina 79-51 on Sunday in the national title game, and they did it the same way they have won all season -- with a dominating inside presence, an unselfish offensive approach and a suffocating defense that handed the Gamecocks their second-worst loss in NCAA tournament history.

The 28-point margin of victory was the third largest in a Division I women’s championship final.

South Carolina Upset Connecticut, But Not As Much As Dawn Staley Upset Geno Auriemma - Defector
It was not really surprising that Geno Auriemma responded poorly to Connecticut's upset loss to South Carolina in the women's Final Four on Friday night, both because the defeat ended Connecticut's perfect season and 54-game winning streak, and because Geno Auriemma is the way he is. Coaches are only human, but Geno Auriemma is also only going to do Geno Auriemma-type stuff. He will do it both because he cares so much and competes so hard and because he is, if you want to be nice about it, Geno Auriemma.

Odds & Ends

Cooper Flagg follows up 51-point game with 45 to outduel LeBron James, send reeling Lakers to defeat - Yahoo Sports
In total Flagg tallied 45 points, 9 assists, 8 rebounds, 2 steals and 1 block in another remarkable entry to his rookie campaign. On the heels of his 51-point effort in a loss to the Magic on Friday, the performance also established new milestones for the Mavericks rookie.

Per NBC, Flagg is the first rookie to post 40-point efforts in consecutive games since Allen Iverson did it five times during the 1996-97 season. And his 96 combined points in two games are the most by a rookie since Wilt Chamberlain.

Lakers’ Luka Dončić visits Europe in effort to expedite hamstring strain treatment - The Athletic
Luka Dončić traveled to Europe on Sunday to receive aggressive treatment on his injured hamstring in an effort to speed up his recovery, league sources told The Athletic.

Dončić suffered a Grade 2 hamstring strain Thursday in the Los Angeles Lakers’ loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. The team ruled him out for only the rest of the regular season, though Grade 2 strains generally take multiple weeks, and in some cases more than a month, to heal.

Niko Tsakiris nets a brace in San Jose’s shutout over San Diego - Field Level Media
Niko Tsakiris scored his second and third career MLS goals and the San Jose Earthquakes eased to a 3-0 victory over 10-man San Diego FC Saturday night to continue their best-ever start in club history.

Preston Judd added his team-leading third goal of the season and also provided an assist as San Jose (5-1-0, 15 points) tied its largest margin of victory this season.

Masters 2026: Power rankings for the entire field at Augusta National - Yahoo Sports
The 2026 Masters Power Rankings are not a measure of who is the best player in the world; that title still belongs to Scottie Scheffler. The rankings reflect who has the best chance to contend and eventually make their way to Butler Cabin THIS week. Since nine of the past 10 Masters winners had at least one top-10 finish in their previous three starts, Scheffler is not only battling against time (he has taken three weeks off), but he's also below the standard for recent form.

Jo Adell Stole Three Homers And A Win From The Mariners - Defector
Adell is worth watching in a way that goes beyond his production or comparatively pedestrian stat line. He almost certainly won't work a walk, but there is basically nothing else that a baseball player can do that Jo Adell could not do at any given moment. On Saturday, in a 1-0 Angels win over the Seattle Mariners highlighted by what Angels assistant-to-the-GM Torii Hunter called "probably the greatest defensive game I've ever seen," Adell did that three times.

In just a week, the ABS system has already changed baseball in surprising ways - The Athletic
At some point, the league might reach a consensus, but Major League Baseball’s first week with the Automated Ball-Strike challenge system has been a learning process that’s felt almost experimental. According to Tap to Challenge, a site that uses Statcast data to track ABS events, the Arizona Diamondbacks challenged only seven pitches in the first week while the Minnesota Twins challenged 26. The Guardians were 2-for-12 in their challenges, while the Orioles were 12-for-14.

The disparities are huge.

Why Did So Many People Vote For Trump? - Dallas McLaughlin
For a lot of us we simply can’t understand how, in 2016, 2020 and 2024, a rational person could have cast their vote for Donald Trump.

How could this conman perfect the biggest con of all time - thrice?

Well, I think I figured it out using the most suburban metaphor I could possibly come up with and I think a lot of people are gonna hate it:

Trump convinced Wal-Mart shoppers that they were in Target.