Juan Soto had the first five-hit game of his career and drove in four runs and Gary Sanchez hit a three-run homer as the San Diego Padres cruised to a 10-3 victory over the visiting Seattle Mariners on Wednesday afternoon to split a two-game interleague series.
Soto went 5-for-5 with four singles and a double. Sanchez scored the Padres’ first run in the second before upping the lead to 4-0 an inning later with his fourth homer in the last eight games.
Padres right-hander Michael Wacha gave up two hits and a walk with seven strikeouts in six scoreless innings to improve to 6-2. It was Wacha’s fifth start of the season with no runs allowed in six or more innings.
Meanwhile, Seattle right-hander George Kirby (5-5), who entered the game with a 3.04 ERA, gave up five runs on a career-high 11 hits in just 3 2/3 innings. He didn’t issue a walk and had three strikeouts.
Sanchez blooped a double to left to open the second, advanced to third on Jake Cronenworth’s sacrifice bunt and scored on Matt Carpenter’s single. Soto and Manny Machado hit back-to-back singles with two outs in the third. Sanchez followed with a 414-foot drive that cleared the wall in center.
Consecutive two-out singles by Fernando Tatis Jr., Soto and Machado in the fourth ended Kirby’s day. San Diego scored three runs in the fifth on an RBI single by Alfonso Rivas and Soto’s two-run, two-out single.
Ha-Seong Kim singled leading off the seventh. After Trent Grisham drew a walk, both runners advanced on a wild pitch. Kim then scored on a groundout by Tatis, and Soto doubled home Grisham.
The Mariners scored three runs in the top of the eighth off Drew Carlton on just one infield hit.
Carlton issued three straight walks to open the inning then hit Jose Caballero with a pitch to force in a run. Julio Rodriguez drove in the second run with a ground-ball single behind second. The final run scored when Ty France grounded into a double play.
The Padres equaled their season high with 17 hits. Cronenworth backed Soto with three singles, while Matt Carpenter, Machado and Sanchez each had two hits.
Jarred Kelenic had a pair of hits for the Mariners.
–Field Level Media
