SAN DIEGO _ After Tyson Ross made it through six innings in his first Padres start in two years, something even rarer happened at Petco Park.
A third home run by a Padres player. A curtain call.
And, unprecedented this season, a Padres victory.
Rookie Christian Villanueva was cheered back to the track outside the Padres dugout in the eighth inning, after his third home run of the night, a three-run blast to left field, near where his previous two solo shots had landed.
With the 390-foot blast _ the shortest of his three, as the first traveled 400 feet to the third deck of the Western Metal Supply Co. building and the second went 399 feet to the second level of seats beyond left _ Villanueva finished with five RBIs and four runs.
It was just the eighth time a Padres player hit three home runs in a game, and Villanueva was just the seventh player to do it. Steve Finley twice hit three in a game.
The Padres' 8-4 victory gave Ross the win in his return to the Petco Park mound for the first time since his April 4, 2016 opening day outing. The 31-year-old right-hander did not pitch again that season, had major surgery afterward and struggled through an unhealthy '17 campaign with the Texas Rangers.
He earned a spot in the Padres' rotation with a spring training in which he showed he was healthy and his slippery fastball and wipeout slider were close to the pitches that made him among the majors' top starters in the three seasons before his injury.
Ross struggled with command much of the first four innings but cruised through the fifth and sixth, retiring the final eight batters he faced.
His six-inning outing was the furthest a Padres starter had made it since Richard went seven innings in the opener.
Craig Stammen, Kirby Yates followed with perfect innings. Kazuhisa Makita got two outs before allowing a run in the ninth. Brad Hand came on for the one-out save, bouncing back from his five-run ninth inning Saturday in his previous outing.
Whatever ended up happening Tuesday night, Ross returning to the mound to pitch for the Padres almost two years to the day after he was their opening day starter was victory for him.
It was at the end of that 2016 season that he underwent a procedure that involves removing a rib to relieve pressure on an artery near the shoulder.
Ross signed with the Rangers before last season, was in their rotation by June and off their team before the season ended. He signed a minor-league deal with the Padres in December, didn't throw a live bullpen session until February and proceeded to wow the Padres in March.
They hoped he'd essentially be found money, that he could be something like the pitcher who was among the game's best from 2013-15. He showed in the spring the slippery fastball was progressing and the wipeout slider was close to form.
Even that is no small thing.
Ross was an all-star in 2014. From the start of '13 through the end of '15, he ranked 12th in the majors with a 3.07 ERA, 14th with a .232 batting average against and ninth with 9.16 strikeouts per nine innings.
"From what I've seen, he's back," Balsley said. "He's the same guy he was _ perhaps better. He went through the turmoil of surgery, all those things mentally it takes to come back. He's sharper. The maturation process. ... I'm so proud of him, how far he's come, how hard he's worked. Just to have him back as a Padre is pretty cool."
Said Padres pitcher Clayton Richard, who has traveled that very same road: "I have goosebumps."
That was before the game.
The entirety of Petco Park had goosebumps by night's end.
