PHOENIX — Chris Paddack picked up where he left off a month earlier, and the Padres did not get no-hit by Tyler Gilbert.
Those were two positive developments for the slumping Padres, who held on to beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 7-5 Monday night at Chase Field despite a bullpen that continued to leak runs.
The most significant development was the victory moved the Padres to within a half-game of the Cincinnati Reds in the race for the final National League wild-card spot. (The teams have the same number of losses, and the Padres have a suspended game against the Braves to be completed Sept. 24. The Padres lead that game 5-4 with 2 1/2 innings to play.)
Monday’s victory was just the Padres’ fourth in 17 games, and it did not come as easy as it seemed it might.
The Padres scored in each of the first three innings to build a 5-0 lead. That included two runs in the first on Fernando Tatis Jr.’s NL-leading 36th home run of the season. Eric Hosmer’s solo homer in the sixth made it 6-1.
But the Diamondbacks loaded the bases against Daniel Hudson in the bottom of the inning before Emilio Pagán relieved Hudson and yielded a grand slam to Ketel Marte. Padres relievers, who entered the game with the major leagues’ third-lowest ERA (3.14) and had thrown the second-most innings of any bullpen, gave up seven runs Saturday against the Angels.
Pagán pitched a scoreless eighth inning. And after the Padres added a run on back-to-back doubles by Manny Machado and Tatis in the top of the ninth, Mark Melancon worked a scoreless inning to earn his major league-leading 35th save.
In his first start since July 27, Paddack allowed three hits in 4 2/3 innings before being pulled following a pair of two-out singles in the fifth. He had thrown 86 pitches, nine more than the rough ceiling of 75 the Padres set for him in his return to the mound. The only run he allowed scored after he left, when reliever Craig Stammen bounced a pitch well before the plate that hopped to the wall.
Paddack had watched his team struggle for the better part of his time on the injured list, including their 13 losses in their 16 games leading up to Monday. Recently, though, he saw the trio of starting pitchers atop the Padres’ rotation (Blake Snell, Yu Darvish and Joe Musgrove) throw well.
“I want to be the next guy to do that,” Paddack said over the weekend.
He went out Monday and took advantage of the early lead his offense gave him, allowing just a one-out single in the second and the two hits in the fifth.
Paddack’s final start before he suffered a strained oblique throwing a bullpen session July 30 had been a quality one. He allowed the Oakland A’s three runs in six innings. In the start before that, he shut out the Atlanta Braves for five innings.
While he brought a 5.13 ERA into Monday’s game, he had won all three of his starts since the All-Star break.
He was not in long enough on Monday to get his fourth straight win, but even with the earned run charged to him before Stammen got out of the fifth with a fly ball out, Paddack’s ERA dropped below 5.00 (to 4.98) for the first time since early July.
As bad as the Diamondbacks are — they entered Monday’s game with exactly twice as many losses (88) as victories (44) — the Padres won just nine of their first 16 meetings this season. The Diamondbacks had won 14 of the teams’ past 16 meetings at Chase Field, including three of four here earlier this month.
The last of their victories in that series was Gilbert’s no-hitter on Aug. 14.
In case anyone forgot what the rookie did that night in his first major league start, Padres manager Jayce Tingler provided a brief synopsis before Monday’s game.
“We’re facing Gilbert, who, you know, shoved it on us last time,” Tingler said before offering a prediction. “I think we’re going to be ready from pitch one.”
They pretty much were. And they got some help.
Tatis did not play in the earlier game against Gilbert, returning from the injured list here the next day and going 4-for-5 with two home runs.
In his first at-bat Monday, with two outs in the first inning, he made sure the Padres would not go hitless a second time against the soft-throwing lefty by blasting a 1-2 curveball over the wall in left-center.
The home run came one pitch after it appeared the inning would end. Trent Grisham, who had led off with a walk, was going to be thrown out easily as he tried to steal second base, but the throw to get him caromed off Diamondbacks second baseman Josh Rojas’ glove.
The Padres scored twice more in the second. Wil Myers led off the inning by slapping a double the other way down the right-field line and scoring on Austin Nola’s one-out single. Nola moved to third on Paddack’s bunt single — with help from a collision between first baseman Christian Walker and catcher Daulton Varsho as Walker went to throw to first to get Paddack — and scored on a single by Grisham.
It was 5-0 after Myers reached on a fielder’s choice, stole second and scored on Adam Frazier’s single in the third inning.
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