Machado, Tatis, Soto and Sánchez slug Padres to win
PHILADELPHIA — Manny Machado, Juan Soto and Fernando Tatis Jr. homered, Yu Darvish struck out nine in six sharp innings and the San Diego Padres defeated the Philadelphia Phillies 8-3 on Friday night in a rematch of last year’s National League Championship Series.
Gary Sánchez also went deep for San Diego, which has won six of seven.
J.T. Realmuto homered for the Phillies.
The matchup was the first between the teams since Game 5 of the NLCS last October, when Bryce Harper’s dramatic, two-run home run in the eighth inning propelled the Phillies to a clinching home victory and a berth in the World Series.
Although both clubs appear to have the pieces for another deep playoff run, neither started the season strong. However, both have played better of late.
Philadelphia, which is 23-10 since June 3, began play a halfgame out of an NL wild-card spot, while San Diego started Friday six games back of a playoff berth.
The Padres, though, have found their offense this month and entered play ranked first in the majors with an average of 6.5 runs per contest.
San Diego continued where it left off prior to the All-Star break.
Sánchez put the Padres up 1-0 in the third inning when he connected on an 0-2, 81-mph slider on a drive over the wall in left off Cristopher Sánchez (0-3). Later in the frame, Tatis crushed a first-pitch changeup into the second deck in left, a two-run shot that made it 3-0.
After the Phillies got on the board on Alec Bohm’s RBI double in the fourth, Machado launched a solo homer to left in the sixth off reliever Jeff Hoffman on another 0-2 pitch.
Darvish (6-6) kept the Phillies at bay, scattering five hits, walking two and allowing a run.
Sánchez gave up three runs in five innings.
Soto joined the homer barrage with a two-run shot to deep left-center in the ninth.