Villanueva homers, Lyles stymies Marlins

SAN DIEGO — Christian Villanueva heard the name and didn’t need a translator to explain what it meant.

Villanueva hit his 15th home run to help the San Diego Padres beat the Miami Marlins 8-3 on Thursday night — and his long fly was a significant one.

Jordan Lyles had the blueprint for success with seven solid innings.

After taking a perfect game into the eighth inning in his last start at Petco Park, Lyles (2-1) wasn’t as dominate against the Marlins. But he limited them to two runs and six hits while walking one and striking out seven in his fifth start after 13 appearances out of the bullpen.

Lyles found his fastball command after his pitch count grew in the first two innings.

Brad Hand got the last out with the bases loaded for his 17th save after newly acquired Phil Hughes struggled in the ninth. Derek Dietrich homered off Kirby Yates in the eighth.

Marlins manager Don Mattingly wasn’t thrilled with his team’s offensive approach.

“It didn’t feel like much,” he said. “I thought at-bats were not great tonight, honestly.”

Wei-Yin Chen (1-3) got just five outs in his shortest stint of the season. He allowed four runs and four hits, and walked two and struck out four.

“It’s baseball,” Chen said. “Sometimes you have good days, sometimes you have bad days.”