Nick Pivetta tossed seven shutout innings Wednesday and the San Diego Padres logged their MLB-high 13th shutout in a 1-0 victory over the visiting Washington Nationals.
Pivetta (8-2) gave up just three hits, walked none and tied his season high with 10 strikeouts. It marked the fourth time this year — but the first since April 22 — that Pivetta delivered seven shutout innings. Jeremiah Estrada pitched a 1-2-3 eighth and Adrian Morejon took care of the ninth for his second save.
MacKenzie Gore (3-8) was a tough-luck loser after allowing only one run on five hits over six innings. Gore walked three, fanned six and lowered his earned run average to 3.09.
The only run came in the bottom of the second. After getting two outs, Gore walked Tyler Wade. Elias Diaz followed with an infield hit and a wild pitch moved them into scoring position. Luis Arraez punched a single into left that scored Wade before Diaz was thrown out at the plate.
Washington didn’t get a hit until Daylen Lile singled to lead off the third, but he was picked off by Pivetta. Alex Call lined a single up the middle with two outs in the fifth and Jacob Young bunted for a hit in the sixth, but the Nationals didn’t put anybody into scoring position all game.
Arraez managed three of San Diego’s six hits, stretching his hitting streak to 12 games. He started the first with a single and Fernando Tatis Jr. drew a two-out walk, but Gore whiffed Gavin Sheets.
The Padres missed on a couple of chances to tack on to their lead. Diaz led off the fifth with a single and reached second on Arraez’s groundout, but Gore induced a popup from Manny Machado and got Jackson Merrill to chase a slider off the plate for a strikeout.
Merrill opened the eighth by walking, but was forced at second when Tatis hit into a fielder’s choice. Tatis stole second before Sheets fanned, then Jose Iglesias whiffed on a breaking ball off the plate to end the inning.
The game capped a stretch of 26 games in 27 days for San Diego. The Padres posted a 13-13 record to lose three games in the standings to the NL-West leading Los Angeles Dodgers.
–Field Level Media
