SAN DIEGO _ Had this happened last season, Matt Strahm might not have lasted much longer than Adam Jones smacking the left-hander's third pitch of the night 378 feet, into the left field seats.
Almost certainly, Strahm would have been gone before the second of successive doubles by the Arizona Diamondbacks' third and fourth hitters.
But now that Strahm is a starting pitcher, manager Andy Green can't just move on to the next pitcher that quickly.
With his slider not darting with its usual bite and his fastball consistently finding too much plate and often flying 4-5 mph slower than last season's 93.5 mph average, Strahm ended up battling two outs deep in the third inning, by that time having allowed five runs in a game the San Diego Padres lost 10-3.
After an opening weekend in which they took three of four from the San Francisco Giants, Monday was the first time the Padres resembled their old selves, with just a little bit of sloppiness to go with a whole bunch of offensive inefficiency.
The Padres scored their runs in the sixth inning, the last two on Fernando Tatis Jr.'s first major league home run _ a line drive to left field that traveled 395 feet and sailed just under the bottom balcony of the Western Metal Supply building.
Merrill Kelly, a 30-year-old right-hander making his major league debut after pitching the past two years in Korea, allowed only Franchy Cordero's two singles through five innings and left having allowed five hits in six innings.
Strahm, 27, posted a 2.05 ERA in 61 1/3 innings last season. That was mostly as a reliever.
The first four members of the five-man starting rotation allowed two runs in 21 1/3 innings.
