Padres manager Bud Black has yet to name the fifth starter in the team's rotation at this point of the spring, per UT San Diego.
The battle for the role boils down to two right-handers, Brandon Morrow and Odrisamer Despaigne.
"Still close," Black said of the race to round out the rotation. "They're both very good pitches. We'll continue to evaluate and watch them, but those guys are competing hard. It's probably a better question to answer late in March. They're doing great. It's a good competition."
Morrow struggled on Saturday in 3 2/3 innings, giving up five runs. Despaigne came in after him and yielded one earned run in 3 1/3 innings pitched.
Black liked Morrow's velocity but thought he struggled with placement.
"I thought his overall stuff is what you're looking for -- you look for velocity, you look for sharpness of pitches, you look for the secondary (pitches)," Black said. "He just left too many pitches up out over the plate. They got some balls in the gap, and we couldn't track them down."
Despaigne threw 30 strikes on the day against 24 balls.
"Despaigne got to a pitch count, showed the assortment of his pitches," Black said. "They nicked him for a couple of runs, but again, what you're looking for, we saw some things that were positive."