Manny Machado hit a three-run home run in his old ballpark as the San Diego Padres extended their winning streak to seven games with a 9-4 win over the Baltimore Orioles on Saturday.
Padres starter Michael King (9-6, 3.26 ERA) earned the win after he allowed two hits and two walks in 6 1/3 dominant innings, striking out nine.
Every player in the San Diego lineup has at least one hit. Xander Bogaerts had three, with two doubles and a triple. Manny Machado also had three hits, including a three-run home run that gave the Padres a 7-0 lead against his former team.
Bogaerts followed Machado's homer with a triple and Jackson Merrill drove him in with a sacrifice fly. Merrill also drove in Machado with a sacrifice fly in the ninth to give the Padres a 9-2 lead.
The Padres (57-50) have won seven consecutive road games for just the fifth time in franchise history and are one win away from matching their record set in 2006.
Here are the takeaways:
SLOPPY ORIOLES DEFENSE
The Padres took a 2-0 lead in the second inning when Orioles shortstop Gunnar Henderson and third baseman Ramón Urias both went for Kyle Higashioka’s popup, which fell in between their gloves as Urias stood directly in front of Henderson in shallow left field. The error, which was charged to Urias, allowed Merrill and David Peralta to score.
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In the following inning, Jurickson Profar led off with a walk, and Machado’s single put San Diego runners on first and third with one out. Bogaerts then hit a scorching grounder at Urias that went under his glove and into left field for an RBI double to give the Padres a 3-0 lead.
Higashioka’s one-out single in the fourth led to another unearned run when he advanced to second on Luis Arraez’s single and scored on a fielder’s choice hit by Profar, which Henderson threw sailing overhead into the first base dugout.
MACHO MACHADO
Back where his career began, Machado’s three-run homer in the seventh accounted for his 998th, 99th, and 1,000th career RBIs. The home run was also Machado’s 14th of the year.
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Machado returned to Baltimore during his first season with the Padres in 2019 and homered back then as well.
NL WILD CARD RACE UPDATE
With Saturday’s win over the Orioles, the Padres are only half a game behind the Atlanta Braves for the top National League Wild Card spot. They are closer to hosting a Wild Card Series than to missing the playoffs again.
Regarding the National League West standing, they have closed the gap to the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers to five and a half games. Los Angeles visits Petco Park for a two-game series beginning Tuesday.
At 10:35 a.m. on Sunday, San Diego right-hander Randy Vásquez (3-5, 3.76 ERA) will try for a three-game sweep at Camden Yards against Albert Suárez (5-4, 3.48), brother of Robert Suárez.