Manny Machado and the San Diego Padres look to carry over their Friday night finish when they play the middle game of their series against the Washington Nationals on Saturday.
Machado’s grand slam capped a five-run ninth inning to lead the visiting Padres to a 7-2 victory over the Nationals on Friday.
San Diego right-hander Yu Darvish (0-1, 6.48 ERA) opposes left-hander Mitchell Parker (5-10, 5.12 ERA) on Saturday.
Darvish is making his third start since returning from a stint on the injured list due to elbow inflammation. In his first start, he took the loss after giving up two earned runs in 4 2/3 innings.
Last time out, on July 12, he allowed four runs on five hits in 4 2/3 innings. He struck out two and walked three while firing 83 pitches.
“Took him a little further than we wanted to,” Padres manager Mike Shildt sad. “But he was in a range that we were comfortable with, and you know, a guy like Darvish, who was wanting the moment, we’re going to give him the benefit of the doubt.”
Darvish is 2-2 with a 4.60 ERA in five starts versus Washington.
Darvish needs just one more victory for the most wins by a Japanese pitcher. He has won 110 games in Major League Baseball and 93 in Nippon Professional Baseball, tied with Hiroki Kuroda, who recorded 79 victories in MLB play.
Parker was likely very glad for the All-Star break. In his last two starts, he went 0-2 with a 9.28 ERA. Against the Milwaukee Brewers on July 11, he gave up seven runs on eight hits in 4 2/3 innings without posting a strikeout.
Parker sports an 8.05 first-inning ERA this season. While he pitched a scoreless first inning against the Brewers, he gave up six runs in the third and one in the fourth.
“There’s obviously some big things that we need to work on,” Parker said. “The time between now and the next start, we’re going to look through some things and hopefully I can improve on them for the second half.”
Parker is 1-1 with a 9.00 ERA in two career starts versus the Padres.
In the series opener, San Diego took a 3-2 lead on a safety squeeze bunt by Elias Diaz before Machado provided a cushion with his 18th home run of the season for the Padres, who have won four of five.
“It’s huge,” Machado said. “Great defensive game. Great pitching performance (by starter Dylan Cease). Just overall a really good game to start off the second half and get us going.”
It was Machado’s 13th career grand slam, the most among active major leaguers.
Washington’s CJ Abrams hit a two-run homer to tie the game in the eighth.
“All we ask is to keep us in the game, and this is what can happen,” Nationals interim manager Miguel Cairo said. “CJ hit that two-run homer. It’s kind of nice to see that they’re battling. They’re playing hard. And that’s all I can ask. Of course we need to get better on the bases and on defense.”
Washington ran itself out of a potential rally in the seventh when Josh Bell was thrown out at third trying to tag up on a fly to right.
–Field Level Media
