Yes, it’s only mid-April, but the Padres have a magic number:
Three.
As in the Padres have won all six games in which they’ve scratched across at least three runs.
Which was the case Monday as Manny Machado homered in the first inning, the Padres collected precisely one more timely hit and Sean Manaea turned in a third straight quality start to beat the Cincinnati Reds, 4-1, to start a three-game series at Petco Park.
Machado’s blast answered a first-inning homer from former teammate Tommy Pham, allowing Manaea to largely coast through six strong innings in which he struck out six, scattered six hits and two walks, and threw 60 of his 78 pitches for strikes.
Ha-seong Kim’s fourth-inning single opened up a 3-1 lead and provided the Padres’ first hit with runners in scoring position since his fifth-inning single on Friday.
The Padres were 1-for-4 with runners in scoring position in that 5-2 loss, didn’t have an opportunity in Saturday’s 5-2 loss, went 0-for-9 in that situation in Sunday’s 2-1 win, and were 1-for-6 on Monday.
Luke Voit added an insurance run in the seventh on a sacrifice fly to right after Machado doubled and moved to third on a ground ball from Jake Cronenworth.
On Monday, the Padres were already up 2-1 after the first inning when Machado followed Austin Nola’s leadoff single with a 112-mph homer to left, his second of the season.
Machado’s blast followed what became a very loud return to San Diego for Pham.
Loud because Pham, in a 1-for-26 run to start his Reds tenure, was booed as he stepped into the batter’s box in the first inning, because he drilled Manaea’s second pitch over the wall in left, because the boos seemed to increase in intensity with each plate appearance.
Pham only hit the ball harder, too, in each plate appearance against Manaea.
After a 104.5 mph homer, Pham rocketed a 104.7 mph line drive to left-center for a double in the third and a 106.4 mph single through the left side of the infield in the fifth.
He didn’t get a fourth chance to face Manaea as rookie Steven Wilson replaced the Padres left-hander to start the seventh and struck out two of the three hitters he faced to make Pham Pierce Johnson’s problem in the eighth.
No problem: Pham popped out weakly to second base to start the next inning, finally eliciting cheers from a crowd of 31,121 as Johnson sat down the side in order.
Left-hander Taylor Rogers improved to 5-for-5 in save chances — a first for a Padres closer to start a season — with a scoreless ninth inning.
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