The Braves that are visiting Petco Park this week are not tattered and tired.
The team whose season the Padres ended with a sweep in the National League wild-card series in October showed up to start the 2025 season with Chris Sale and Austin Riley and with Ozzie Albies able to bat from the left side.
And Michael King was not the best kind of amped up this time.
But the Padres on Thursday did have the same Fernando Tatis Jr. who sizzled most of this past postseason, the same Manny Machado and Jackson Merrill who helped carry them through the second half and the same resilience they showed all of 2024.
So the Padres started over by beating the Braves again, coming back for a 7-4 victory on opening day at Petco Park.
Newcomer Gavin Sheets’ pinch-hit homer over the center field wall tied the game 4-4 and launched a four-run seventh inning that featured Tatis hitting his third single of the game, Machado doubling for the second time in the game and Merrill driving in his fourth run of the game.
Jason Adam retired the Braves in order in the eight, and Robert Suarez left two runners on in the ninth to get the save and finish off the day for a bullpen that worked five scoreless innings to close out the game.
The Padres grinded their way to many of their 93 wins last season, coming back to win 38 times and winning 33 games that were either tied or in which they trailed in the seventh inning or later.
King, who allowed three runs in 2⅔ innings in his first opening-day start Thursday, had been in top form against the Braves a little less than sixth months ago when he struck out 12 batters on his way to seven scoreless innings in Game 1 of the wild-card series.
He also took advantage of a depleted side that night.
The Braves had to play a doubleheader on Sept. 30 in Atlanta, qualifying for the playoffs by winning the second game. They boarded a flight to San Diego that night and began the wild-card series the next day.
The series lasted two games but might as well have been over before it started.
Sale, who in November would be named the National League Cy Young award winner, was not active for the wild-card series due to back spasms.
On Thursday, he was not much better than King but was just a bit more resilient. After throwing 29 pitches in the Padres’ two-run first inning, the left-hander made it through five innings on 84 pitches in his seventh opening-day start.
In the wild-card series, Albies was recovering from a wrist injury and unable to utilize his switch-hitting abilities. Instead, he batted right-handed exclusively, including strikeouts in all three of his at-bats against King.
His two-run homer in the third inning Thursday, batting left-handed against King, put the Braves up 3-2. He had given them a 1-0 lead by beating out a would-be inning-ending double play in the first inning.
Riley, who was out of the playoffs with a wrist injury as well, hit a solo homer off Alek Jacob in the fourth inning put the Braves up 4-3.
That was after the Padres took a 2-1 lead in the first inning (on a single by Tatis and walk by Machado, a stolen base by both and Merrill’s two-run single with two outs) and tied the game 3-3 in the third (on a double by Machado, single by Xander Bogaerts and Merrill’s RBI groundout).And it was after King had been pulled with two out and two on in the third inning having thrown 76 pitches.
Jacob stranded those runners with a strikeout and got two groundouts to start the fourth before Riley sent a changeup near the heart of the strike zone a projected 401 feet and over the wall in left-center field to put the Braves up.
After two more singles, Yuki Matsui got the final out of the fourth and the first two outs of the fifth. Jeremiah Estrada then got two outs deep in the seventh before Wandy Peralta ended the inning with one pitch.
Originally Published: March 27, 2025 at 4:18 PM PDT
