Arizona is off to a start San Diego would rather forget. The Diamondbacks rolled into Petco Park and put up 11 runs, cruising to an 11-4 win over the Padres, continuing one of the more lopsided results you'll see in the young season.
San Diego, for its part, came in with a mixed bag of results, having split its last three games against the Dodgers before falling to Arizona 4-11.
The story of the night was Geraldo Perdomo, who was every bit the catalyst Arizona needed. The shortstop turned in a 48.0 fantasy-point performance, the kind of night that decides games by itself. Perdomo was on base constantly, drove the ball with authority, and set the tone from the top of the order. It's the kind of game that gets a player named MVP without much debate, and Perdomo earned it wire to wire.
He didn't do it alone. Nolan Arenado continued to look like the middle-of-the-order force Arizona needs him to be, putting together a 40.0-point night that included the kind of extra-base damage that breaks games open. Lars Nootbaar chipped in as the designated hitter with 39.0 points, giving the Diamondbacks a third bat in the lineup that San Diego simply had no answer for. When your one-through-four hitters are all producing at that level, opposing pitching staffs don't have anywhere to hide.
On the mound, Brandon Pfaadt did his part too, posting 30.2 fantasy points in a start that set the tone early. Pfaadt didn't need to be spectacular with the kind of support he was getting — he needed to keep the Padres from climbing back into it, and he did exactly that. Jordan Lawlar added 24.0 points out of the outfield, and catcher Gabriel Moreno chipped in 19.5, rounding out a lineup that had production from top to bottom. This wasn't one or two guys carrying Arizona. It was a full-team beatdown.
San Diego wasn't without bright spots, even in a lopsided loss. Sung-Mun Song led the Padres with 17.0 fantasy points, and Xander Bogaerts added 13.5 in a game where the shortstop tried to keep pace. Fernando Tatis Jr. posted 13.0 points, and Jake Cronenworth and Dustin Harris each turned in 11.5-point nights. Wandy Peralta was effective out of the bullpen with 11.5 points of his own, one of the few positives for a Padres pitching staff that otherwise had a long evening. But when your team's best performers are put up against a lineup like Arizona trotted out, in a game your club trailed by seven runs, individual numbers only tell part of the story. San Diego simply couldn't match the damage the Diamondbacks were doing across the board.
The bigger picture here is about momentum, and right now Arizona has it after a dominant win. The Diamondbacks looked deep, looked confident, and looked like they weren't treating this opponent lightly. Perdomo, Arenado and Nootbaar giving this kind of production together suggests the lineup has real teeth, and Pfaadt's outing suggests the rotation might not be the question mark some expected.
For San Diego, there's plenty of season left to fix this, but a 4-11 loss is not the sort of thing you want piling up in the season's opening weeks. The Padres have shown they can compete — recent results against the Dodgers and Marlins prove the talent is there — but they'll need their pitching to find consistency fast, because lineups like Arizona's won't get easier to face as the year goes on.
For fantasy managers building lineups on JockBroker, Perdomo's 48-point outburst is exactly the kind of performance worth chasing, and Arizona's top of the order looks like it's rounding into a group worth trusting again soon.
