List of San Diego Padres Opening Day starting pitchers

Jake Peavy, the Opening Day starting pitcher 2006–09

The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West Division. The Padres first played their home games at San Diego Stadium until 2004, when they moved into Petco Park.[1] The first game of the new baseball season for a team is played on Opening Day, and being named the Opening Day starter is an honor, which is often given to the player who is expected to lead the pitching staff that season,[2] though there are various strategic reasons why a team's best pitcher might not start on Opening Day.[3] The Padres have used 24 different Opening Day starting pitchers in their 42 seasons. The 24 starters have a combined Opening Day record of 15 wins, 14 losses and 13 no decisions. No decisions are only awarded to the starting pitcher if the game is won or lost after the starting pitcher has left the game.

The Padres' first Opening Day starting pitcher was Dick Selma, who received a win against the Houston Astros. Randy Jones, Eric Show and Jake Peavy tie the Padres' record for most Opening Day starts with four. Peavy has the most consecutive Opening Day starts with four (2006–2009). Jones and Andy Benes each have had three consecutive Opening Day starts. Benes has the most consecutive Opening Day losses with three from 1993 to 1995.

Overall, the Padres' Opening Day starting pitchers have a record of eight wins and five losses at San Diego Stadium and two wins and one loss at Petco Park. Although the Padres were nominally the home team on Opening Day 1999, the game was played in Estadio de Béisbol Monterrey in Monterrey, Mexico.[4] The Padres' Opening Day starting pitchers' combined home record is 11 wins and six losses, and their away record is four wins and eight losses. The Padres went on to play in the MLB post-season five times, winning the National League Championship Series (NLCS) in 1984 and 1998.[5] In those five seasons, the Opening Day starting pitchers had a combined record of three wins and 0 losses.

Key

Petco Park, the team's home stadium since 2004
Season Each year is linked to an article about that particular Padres season.
W Win
L Loss
ND (W) No decision by starting pitcher; Padres won game
ND (L) No decision by starting pitcher; Padres lost game
Final score (#) Game score with Padres runs listed first;
extra innings are in brackets
Location Stadium in bold for home game
Pitcher (#) Number of appearances as Opening Day starter with the Padres
* Advanced to the post-season
** Won the National League Championship Series

Pitchers

Andy Benes, the Opening Day starting pitcher in 1993, 1994, and 1995
Season Pitcher Decision Final
score 		Opponent Location Attendance Ref.[6][7]
1969 Dick Selma W 2–1 Houston Astros San Diego Stadium 23,370 [8]
1970 Pat Dobson W 8–3 Atlanta Braves San Diego Stadium 25,125 [9]
1971 Tom Phoebus L 0–4 San Francisco Giants San Diego Stadium 34,554 [10]
1972 Clay Kirby W 6–5 Atlanta Braves San Diego Stadium 16,655 [11]
1973 Clay Kirby (2) W 4–2 Los Angeles Dodgers San Diego Stadium 32,019 [12]
1974 Bill Greif L 0–8 Los Angeles Dodgers Dodger Stadium 31,566 [13]
1975 Randy Jones ND (L) 0–2 (10) San Francisco Giants San Diego Stadium 17,670 [14]
1976 Randy Jones (2) W 8–2 Atlanta Braves San Diego Stadium 44,728 [15]
1977 Randy Jones (3) L 3–5 Cincinnati Reds Riverfront Stadium 51,937 [16]
1978 Gaylord Perry ND (W) 3–2 San Francisco Giants Candlestick Park 36,131 [17]
1979 Gaylord Perry (2) W 4–3 Los Angeles Dodgers Dodger Stadium 46,536 [18]
1980 Randy Jones (4) W 6–4 San Francisco Giants San Diego Stadium 29,535 [19]
1981 John Curtis ND (W) 4–1 San Francisco Giants Candlestick Park 54,520 [20]
1982 Juan Eichelberger L 0–1 Atlanta Braves Jack Murphy Stadium 30,188 [21]
1983 Tim Lollar W 16–13 San Francisco Giants Candlestick Park 50,542 [22]
1984** Eric Show W 5–1 Pittsburgh Pirates Jack Murphy Stadium 44,553 [23]
1985 LaMarr Hoyt ND (L) 3–4 San Francisco Giants Candlestick Park 52,714 [24]
1986 Eric Show (2) L 1–2 Los Angeles Dodgers Dodger Stadium 49,444 [25]
1987 Eric Show (3) ND (L) 3–4 (12) San Francisco Giants Candlestick Park 52,020 [26]
1988 Ed Whitson ND (L) 3–6 Houston Astros Astrodome 39,906 [27]
1989 Eric Show (4) L 3–5 San Francisco Giants Jack Murphy Stadium 52,763 [28]
1990 Bruce Hurst L 2–4 Los Angeles Dodgers Dodger Stadium 48,686 [29]
1991 Ed Whitson (2) ND (W) 7–4 San Francisco Giants Jack Murphy Stadium 48,089 [30]
1992 Bruce Hurst (2) ND (W) 4–3 Cincinnati Reds Riverfront Stadium 55,356 [31]
1993 Andy Benes L 4–9 Pittsburgh Pirates Three Rivers Stadium 44,103 [32]
1994 Andy Benes (2) L 1–4 Atlanta Braves Jack Murphy Stadium 42,251 [33]
1995 Andy Benes (3) L 2–10 Houston Astros Jack Murphy Stadium 41,961 [34]
1996* Andy Ashby ND (L) 4–5 (10) Chicago Cubs Wrigley Field 38,734 [35]
1997 Joey Hamilton W 12–5 New York Mets Jack Murphy Stadium 43,005 [36]
1998** Kevin Brown W 10–2 Cincinnati Reds Cinergy Field 54,578 [37]
1999 Andy Ashby (2) L 2–8 Colorado Rockies Estadio de Béisbol Monterrey 27,104 [4]
2000 Sterling Hitchcock ND (L) 1–2 New York Mets Shea Stadium 52,308 [38]
2001 Woody Williams L 2–3 San Francisco Giants Pacific Bell Park 40,930 [39]
2002 Kevin Jarvis ND (W) 0–2 Arizona Diamondbacks Chase Field 47,025 [40]
2003 Brian Lawrence ND (L) 2–5 San Francisco Giants Qualcomm Stadium 61,707 [41]
2004 Brian Lawrence (2) W 8–2 Los Angeles Dodgers Dodger Stadium 53,850 [42]
2005* Woody Williams (2) ND (L) 10–12 Colorado Rockies Coors Field 47,661 [43]
2006* Jake Peavy W 6–1 San Francisco Giants Petco Park 43,767 [44]
2007 Jake Peavy (2) W 7–0 San Francisco Giants AT&T Park 42,773 [45]
2008 Jake Peavy (3) W 4–0 Houston Astros Petco Park 44,965 [46]
2009 Jake Peavy (4) L 1–4 Los Angeles Dodgers Petco Park 45,496 [47]
2010 Jon Garland L 3–6 Arizona Diamondbacks Chase Field 49,192 [48]
2011 Tim Stauffer ND (W) 5–3 St. Louis Cardinals Busch Stadium 46,368 [49]
2012 Edinson Volquez L 3–5 Los Angeles Dodgers Petco Park 42,941 [50]
2013 Edinson Volquez (2) L 2–11 New York Mets Citi Field 41,053 [51]
2014 Andrew Cashner ND (W) 3–1 Los Angeles Dodgers Petco Park 45,567 [52]
2015 James Shields ND (L) 3–6 Los Angeles Dodgers Dodger Stadium 53,518 [53]
2016 Tyson Ross L 0–15 Los Angeles Dodgers Petco Park 44,317 [54]
2017 Jhoulys Chacín L 3–14 Los Angeles Dodgers Dodger Stadium 53,701 [55]
2018 Clayton Richard ND (L) 1–2 (12) Milwaukee Brewers Petco Park 44,659 [56]
2019 Eric Lauer W 2–0 San Francisco Giants Petco Park 44,655 [57]
2020* Chris Paddack W 7–2 Arizona Diamondbacks Petco Park 0 [58]
2021 Yu Darvish ND (W) 8–7 Arizona Diamondbacks Petco Park 10,350 [59]
2022* Yu Darvish (2) ND (L) 2–4 Arizona Diamondbacks Chase Field 35,508 [60]
2023 Blake Snell L 2–7 Colorado Rockies Petco Park 45,103 [61]
2024* Yu Darvish (3) ND (L) 2–5 Los Angeles Dodgers Gocheok Sky Dome 15,952 [62]

References

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