PHILADELPHIA -- As first impressions go, Vincent Velasquez is making quite a good one on the Philadelphia Phillies' faithful.

The 23-year-old right-hander, acquired from the Houston Astros this offseason as part of a four-for-one swap, looks like he could be a mainstay in the rotation for quite a while after putting together arguably the best first two starts by any pitcher to wear the red pinstripes.

Velasquez continued a stellar start to the season with a complete-game shutout and Ryan Howard knocked in two runs as the Phillies evened their record with a 3-0 win over the San Diego Padres on Thursday afternoon.

"It looks like we made a pretty good trade, I'd say," Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said afterward. "How much fun was that to watch?"

After going six scoreless innings to beat the Mets last weekend, Velasquez (2-0, 0.00 ERA) ran his streak to 14 innings to start the season, and he did so with perhaps the more dominant outing by any starter during the still-young season.

"It was a great day today," Velasquez said. "Everything was just kind of clicking. It's not cold as it was in New York. It was pretty fun to pitch today."

In just his ninth major league start (21th appearance), he whiffed 16 San Diego batters, all but two of whom went down swinging. He retired the final 14 batters he faced, striking out the side in the eighth and getting two more strikeouts in the final inning, which saw him hit 97 mph on the radar gun even after 110 pitches.

"Very impressive," Mackanin said. "He's something else. He's fun to watch. His last outing was fun to watch. He's going to be good for us."

The 16 strikeouts were the most by any pitcher so far this year, and his 25 strikeouts through his first two starts are also the most by any Phillies pitcher in their first two with the franchise in the modern era.

It's the third win in a row and the fifth in six games for the Phillies (5-5), who started the season with a four-game losing streak but have since rallied for their first .500 record since being 3-3 last April 12.

"It was exciting," Velasquez said. "Going towards the end, I really thought about it. My emotions were just running high and I kind of had to settle down."

Meanwhile, the Padres dropped the third consecutive game in the four-game series, falling to 3-7 this season.

San Diego's offense, which managed 36 runs in four games from April 8 to April 11, has scored just one run in the three games since.

"We still have to find a way to be more competitive, whatever we have to do, if it's physical adjustments, mental adjustments, we have to find a way to have more competitive at-bats," San Diego manager Andy Green said. "(Velasquez) was very good, without a doubt; we still have to be better."

Velasquez's start continued an impressive beginning to the season for a largely unproven Phillies rotation, which is 5-3 with a 2.14 ERA.

Howard provided the only offense through the first five innings with a solo shot over the wall just left of center to begin the second. That was the third home run of the season for the Phillies' longtime slugging first baseman and the 360th of his career.

Howard tacked on a sacrifice fly in the sixth, scoring Odubel Herrera, who started the inning with a walk before stealing second and advancing to third on a groundout.

Despite taking the loss, Padres starter Drew Pomeranz had a solid afternoon, throwing six innings of three-hit, two-run ball with eight strikeouts and three walks. His record evened at 1-1 and his ERA rose to 3.27.

"If you continue to go out and make starts like that, if we get that from what technically is the back end of our rotation, we'll be in really good shape throughout the year," Green said. "If you look through his outing today, you'd probably like to have two pitches back, and they were both to Ryan Howard."

Andres Blanco finished the scoring in the seventh, doubling to lead off the inning before coming home on a wild pitch by Padres reliever Carlos Villanueva three batters later.

NOTES: The Padres wrapped up a seven-game road trip with a 3-4 mark after being swept at home by the Dodgers to open the season. ... The Phillies have won nine of their last 11 games against the Padres at Citizens Bank Park since Sept. 11, 2013, and are 27-15 at the ballpark against San Diego. ... Phillies starters posted a 2.50 ERA (15 earned runs in 54 innings) through the first nine games of the season, which is the third-best ERA among National League starting rotations through Wednesday. ... The Phillies and Padres will meet in just one more series this season, Aug. 5-7 in San Diego.