SAN DIEGO (AP) — Wil Myers made up for lost time with two impressive swings.
After struggling for weeks, Myers homered twice and doubled to lead the San Diego Padres to an 8-2 win against the Cincinnati Reds on Friday night. Tommy Pham hit a leadoff homer and Chris Paddack struck out 11 in five impressive innings to match his career high.
The Padres have hit seven homers in winning the first two games of the four-game series. They came into the series struggling badly after losing 13 of 17 games, including going just 1-5 on a trip through New York and Colorado.
Coming off a 6-4 thriller Thursday night in which they hit four homers in the final four innings, including a pair of two-run homers in the ninth, the Padres didn’t wait that long to break out on Friday night. Pham hit an opposite-field shot to right on rookie Tony Santilla’s second pitch, his sixth.
Myers homered off the first floor of the Western Metal Supply Co. Building in the left-field corner leading off the second, giving him the most homers by a Padres player at Petco Park, 58. He had been tied with Adrian Gonzalez at 57.
“I’ve been trying to do that for like a month now. I finally got it. Pretty cool to have. It’s definitely a record that I don’t think will every be broken, so that’s nice,” he cracked.
Myers’ 59th homer at the downtown ballpark was a leadoff shot off reliever Ashton Goudeau into the Padres’ bullpen in the fourth for a 4-1 lead.
It was his ninth career multihomer game and first since Game 2 of the 2020 wild-card series against the St. Louis Cardinals. He has eight homers this season.
He hadn’t homered since May 30 at Houston. He hadn’t homered at home since April 7 against San Francisco.
Myers missed 10 games in May after testing positive for COVID-19.
“Especially since I’ve been back from COVID, I’ve struggled a little bit to find some things, but today was nice,” Myers said. “I was able to not miss pitches over the zone and put them in play, which is the thing I’ve been working on most. I felt great tonight. Those are some of those games that can really get you going.”
Goudeau loaded the bases with one out in the fourth and Fernando Tatis Jr. hit an RBI single to left.
Tatis hit a leadoff double in the third and eventually scored on Manny Machado’s sacrifice fly.
Trent Grisham had a two-run double in the eighth.
Paddack (4-5) was mostly brilliant in holding the Reds to two runs and six hits, with just one walk. He matched his career strikeout high set against the New York Mets on May 6, 2019, in his seventh big league start.
Paddack has been up and down since his impressive rookie season of 2019.
“I’ll continue to build. I’m not going to let my guard down,” Paddack said. “I’ve had success in the big leagues before and I know that this game will humble you quickly. I’m just going to, every fifth, sixth day, grab the ball and go out there and attack and have fun.”
Paddack allowed Jesse Winker’s RBI single in the third and Kyle Farmer’s RBI base hit in the fourth.
The damage could have been worse in the fourth. Paddack walked Joey Votto and allowed Eugenio Suárez’s infield single with one out. The tall right-hander leaped over Tatis, the shortstop, to avoid a collision as they both went for Suárez’s grounder. Paddack struck out Tucker Barnhart, allowed Farmer’s run-scoring single and then struck out pinch-hitter Shogo Akiyama.
The Reds struck out 15 times, with Paddack setting the tone.
“From where I’m sitting in the dugout, the stuff that really the last two guys had against us was pretty impressive,” manager David Bell said. “Tonight he was really good. You’ve got to give him credit. I think that was a big part of tonight.”
Joe Musgrove pitched seven strong innings Thursday night but didn’t get the decision.
Santillan (0-1) allowed three runs and four hits in three innings, struck out three and walked one.
UMPIRE CHANGE
Plate umpire Larry Vanover took a foul ball by Winker off his mask in the top of the first inning and removed himself after the bottom of the inning. During a 13-minute delay while Chris Guccione changed into his protective gear to move behind the plate, the Padres’ infielders came off the field and Tatis and South Korean rookie Kim Ha-seong led a dance-off to Psys “Gangnam Style.”