But when the Reds came to town, the Padres were reeling under the load of a 4-and-13 record over their last 17 and 1-and-6 in their prior seven.
That changed quickly. With an 8-2 victory Friday night in Petco Park, the Padres have taken the first two of a four-game series with the Reds.
The Padres unloaded their power package in this one. All six of their first six hits were for extra base hits, including two home runs off Reds rookie Tony Santillan.
Santillan lasted only three innings and gave up a run in each of the three. Tommy Pham led the bottom of the first by drilling Santillan’s second pitch of the game over the right field wall.
It was more of the same in the second inning when Wil Myers cleared the left field wall with a home run to make it 2-0.
The Reds scored a run in the third on Jesse Winker’s single, but San Diego retrieved that run in the third on a double by Fernando Tatis Jr. and a sacrifice fly by Manny Machado.
Cincinnati drew within one, 3-2, in the fourth on a two-out single by Kyle Farmer that scored Joey Votto from third base.
San Diego starter Chris Paddack entered the game with a 3-5 record and a 4.14 earned run average. But he was a mystery to the Reds. He pitched five innings and gave up two runs, six hits, walked one and tied his career high with 11 strikeouts.
After Santillan and Paddack departed, it became a battle of the bullpens and the Reds lost that one.
The Padres added three runs against Cincinnati’s bullpen and the Reds added nothing against the San Diego bullpen, not even a hit over the final four innings.
Tim Hill, University of Dayton product, and Versailles native Craig Stammen, Emilio Pagan and Austin Adams held the Reds hitless. Only two Red reached base, a four-pitch two-out walk in the seventh to Jonathan India and Kyle Farmer was hit by a pitch with two outs in the ninth. The Reds struck out 15 times.
Ashton Goudeau replaced Santillan in the fourth and Wil Myers repeated his second-inning act. He homered again.
When the game began, Myers was hitting .220 in June with one extra base hit, a double. And he later doubled to give him two home runs and a double for the might.
The Padres added another run in the fifth after the Myers home run, a bases loaded ground ball single by Fernando Tatis Jr. to push the Padres to a 5-2 lead.
And it became 6-2 in the seventh against Sean Doolittle on Jake Cronenworth’s two-out double.
The assault on the Reds bullpen continued in the eighth inning against Ryan Hendrix when he gave up a walk, a single and a two-run double by Trent Grisham to turn it into an 8-2 blowout.
The Padres cracked a season-high four home runs Thursday night, including a pair of two-run blasts in the ninth inning when they came from 4-2 down to a 6-4 victory.
On Friday, the Padres clubbed 12 hits, eight for extra bases — six doubles and two home runs.
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