Joe Dunand homered in his first Major League at-bat, Jorge Soler capped a five-run ninth with a grand slam homer and Pablo Lopez shut out the Padres on five hits over eight innings Saturday night as the visiting Miami Marlins scored an 8-0 win in San Diego to snap a six-game losing streak.
The right-handed Lopez ran his record to 4-1 and lowered his earned run average to a miniscule 1.00. He issued two walks and had five strikeouts. He retired nine straight Padres at one point and got 13 outs on ground balls. Right-hander Louis Head completed the first shutout of the Padres this season.
The 26-year-old Dunand is a Miami native and a nephew of Alex Rodriguez. He reached the first row of seats in left on the third pitch he saw from Padres left-handed starter Sean Manaea with one out in the bottom of the second.
Dunand’s home run gave the Marlins a 1-0 lead. He then doubled in the fifth to trigger a two-run Miami inning. Dunand was the Marlins’ second-round pick in the 2017 draft out of North Carolina State. He was born and raised in Miami and was hitting .255 with Triple-A Jacksonville with just one homer in 14 games when he was promoted Saturday when Jon Berti was placed on the 10-day injured list.
Lopez worked his way out of two jams.
In the first, the Padres loaded the bases with two out on singles by Jake Cronenworth and Manny Machado and a walk to Jurickson Profar. But Trent Grisham popped out to short to end the threat. Profar and Jose Azocar singled in the fourth before C.J. Abrams grounded out.
The Marlins were still leading only 1-0 going into the fifth when Jacob Stallings drew a leadoff walk from Manaea. Dunand followed with a double in the left field corner and Garrett Cooper hit a two-out, two-run double. Manaea (2-3) gave up three runs on seven hits and a walk with eight strikeouts in six innings.
Soler’s grand slam off Ray Kerr followed three walks and Jazz Chisholm’s RBI double off Dinelson Lamet.
–Field Level Media