SAN DIEGO _ Breathe easy, San Diego.
The Padres are again a winning team. And it is the way in which they avoided a seven-game skid Sunday that provides at least a measure of comfort, certainly more so than arbitrarily sneaking one game over .500 via Sunday's 4-3 win over the Reds.
They hit.
At least for an inning.
Austin Hedges' solo homer was the outlier in the Padres' decisive, third-inning, four-run rally. The rest of the runs scored as a result of a five straight hits, the kind of uprising that had been absent throughout a homestand in which the Padres failed to score more than two runs.
In fact, the Padres hadn't led in a week _ the third inning on Sunday, April 14, to be exact _ when Wil Myers' two-out drive in the third inning sent Matt Kemp crashing hard into the wall in left field. Two runs crossed the plate when the ball evaded Kemp's glove and bounced back toward the infield and a third scored on Eric Hosmer's ensuing double, one of five straight hits in the inning.
The uprising started with Hedges leading off the inning with his third homer of the season. It might lasted a little longer had Fernando Tatis Jr. not been thrown out attempting to steal second after a one-out single extended his hitting streak to 10 games.
Singles from Manuel Margot and Manny Machado preceded Myers' two-out double.
The Padres managed only three hits outside the third inning but it was enough for left-hander Joey Lucchesi, who struck out a season-high eight batters and was an out away from his first quality start of the season when he walked Curt Casali and allowed two-out single to Jose Iglesias in the sixth .
Left-hander Brad Wieck needed one pitch to Jesse Winker _ the Reds' leader with six homers _ to end the threat.
The lone run charged to Lucchesi scored in the scored when Matt Kemp led off with a double and scored on Iglesias' one-out single, a hot shot against a drawn-in infield that Tatis nearly gloved.
Solo homers in the seventh inning off Wieck (Kyle Farmer) and Craig Stammen (Eugenio Suarez) shaved the Padres' lead to 4-3.
Closer Kirby Yates got a double-play ball to erase a leadoff single in a scoreless ninth for his 10th save, the most in the majors.
