Jackson Merrill’s three-run double snapped a third-inning tie and put the San Diego Padres ahead to stay on Monday night as they started a three-game series with a 5-3 victory over the visiting Minnesota Twins.

Michael King (11-6) got the win after pitching six innings and allowing two runs on four hits to go along with three walks and six strikeouts. Three relievers finished up, with Robert Suarez working the ninth for his 28th save in 31 chances this season.

Zebby Matthews (1-1) absorbed the loss in his second major league game. The right-hander allowed four hits and five runs (two earned) in five innings. He walked two and fanned one.

All of the Padres’ scoring came in the first three innings, capped by Merrill’s big hit that came on an 0-2 changeup on the outside corner that was lined to the wall in left-center. The double scored Jurickson Profar, Jake Cronenworth and Xander Bogaerts.

Merrill’s double was the only hit in the inning. Profar reached when Matthews dropped a throw from second baseman Edouard Julien with one out for an error, and Cronenworth and Bogaerts followed with walks.

Minnesota initiated the scoring in the first when Matt Wallner lined a two-out double into the right field corner that plated Trevor Larnach from first. San Diego responded with two runs in its half of the first on Cronenworth’s groundout that scored Luis Arraez and Bogaerts’ two-out single to left that chased home Profar.

The Twins tied the game in the second when Willi Castro bounced into a forceout with the bases filled, scoring Julien. The visitors had a chance to retake the lead in the third when they put runners on first and second with two outs, but Julien lined out to right fielder David Peralta to end the frame.

King got stronger in the middle innings, mowing down nine of the last 10 men he faced. After Austin Martin’s one-out single in the fourth, Minnesota didn’t get another hit until a two-out infield single by Christian Vazquez in the ninth that scored Julien.

Vazquez was the only player for either team to manage two hits.

–Field Level Media