WASHINGTON _ For the second straight day, the team with the excellent bullpen beat the team that might as well not have one.
This time it wasn't a home run in their final at-bat that won it but a few hits, a couple walks, a hit batter and two sacrifice flies that produced a six-run 10th inning that lifted the Padres to an 8-3 victory Saturday over Washington at Nationals Park.
The Padres scored so much in that final inning that closer Kirby Yates sat down in the bullpen after warming up, missing out on a chance to save a fifth Padres victory in a row.
Luis Perdomo, in just his second appearance since being recalled from Triple-A on April 14, struck out all three batters he faced in the ninth to get the victory. Robbie Erlin allowed a two-out home run but safely navigated the cushion he'd been provided in the 10th.
The Padres have won five straight games for the first time since 2017 and have won a series against the Nationals for the first time since 2016.
Less than 24 hours after scratching back to win Friday's game 4-3 after Max Scherzer dominated them at the start, the Padres played from ahead against Stephen Strasburg, taking a 2-0 lead in the second inning on Hunter Renfroe's two-run homer.
They would get just three other hits off Strasburg.
The 30-year-old San Diego native and SDSU product, had his good stuff. The fastball jumping through the zone at 93 and 94 mph, even up above 95. The curveball the right-hander seems to control by string. The change-up that dies.
Padres starter Eric Lauer's mix isn't as visually striking. But the 23-year-old lefty plays a sort of chess with batters and on Saturday continued to put pitches mostly where he wanted them when he wanted to. Mostly.
Lauer has pitched as well this season as he did at any time in 2018. But after throwing six shutout innings on Opening Day, trouble has found him at some point in each of his past four starts.
After his first two walks, Lauer escaped. His third will haunt him another few days.
With one out in the sixth inning, having retired 11 of the past 12 batters he had faced, Lauer got up 0-1 on Victor Robles before missing with four straight pitches.
Lauer then struck out Howie Kendrick on a 93-mph fastball before throwing two more balls to start a face-off with Juan Soto.
Lauer's third pitch to the 20-year-old who bats from the left side was a fastball up and in that Soto sent high and long and in a hurry to the second deck beyond right field _ an estimated 414 feet from home plate at 110.5 mph.
That tied a game the Padres had led almost from the start, on Renfroe's blast that followed Eric Hosmer's leadoff walk in the second inning.
Renfroe, whose home run in the ninth inning Friday came an inning after he had replaced Franmil Reyes in right field, started in left field Saturday. The homer was his sixth, tying him with Fernando Tatis Jr. and Reyes for the team lead.
Renfroe's double in the fourth, Machado's first-inning single and Hosmer's single in the sixth were the only other hits in seven innings against Strasburg, who struck out nine the day after Scherzer struck out 10 in seven innings.
Ty France led off the 10th inning by ripping a single up the middle and Francisco Mejia moved him to third with a double. Greg Garcia's fly ball to left drove in France. Mejia would score after walks to Tatis and Wil Myers loaded the bases and Machado was nicked on the elbow pad by a pitch from Matt Grace, the third of the four relievers who worked the 10th for the Nationals.
Manuel Margot followed with a single that scored two more. Another walk loaded the bases again. Renfroe's fly ball to center field drove in Machado, and Margot scored when the throw home went into the Padres dugout.
That brought up France for the second time in the game, and after getting a single in his first two major league at-bats, the SDSU alum struck out to end the top of the 10th.
A sustained sarcastic cheer broke out among the relatively few fans remaining inside Nationals Park.
After all that, the Padres could be grateful for the fact they have built a reliable bullpen.
Craig Stammen came into strand the three runners Adam Warren and Brad Wieck walked in the seventh inning and pitched a scoreless eighth.
Including the five earned runs allowed in the 10th inning, the Nationals bullpen has a 7.34 ERA, worst among the major leagues' 30 teams.
