Jake Cronenworth and Fernando Tatis Jr. each homered Monday night while Dylan Cease snapped a five-start winless streak as the San Diego Padres stopped the visiting Oakland Athletics 6-1.
Cease (6-5) scattered eight hits and a walk over six innings, allowing just one run while striking out eight. It was his first win since May 8, when he fanned 12 and allowed one hit in seven innings during a 3-0 road victory over the Chicago Cubs.
Joey Estes (2-2) absorbed the loss for Oakland after permitting eight hits and three runs over five innings. He walked two and struck out three. It was his first outing since allowing only one hit over 6 1/3 innings in a 2-1 home win over the Seattle Mariners on Wednesday.
The A’s initiated the scoring in the second inning when Tyler Soderstrom jumped on a fastball and launched it an estimated 405 feet over the right-center-field fence, his second homer of the season.
Cronenworth blasted his 10th homer of the year in the third inning to forge a 1-1 tie, getting ahead 2-0 in the count and then drilling a 422-foot shot into the seats behind the right-center-field wall.
San Diego took the lead for good in the fourth when Jackson Merrill doubled with one out and scored on Ha-Seong Kim’s single to left. Tatis extended the margin to 3-1 in the fifth when he lined his 13th homer off the top of the wall in right-center, stretching his hitting streak to a career-high 16 games.
The Padres broke the game open in the seventh against the Oakland bullpen. After loading the bases with one out against Sean Newcomb, Michel Otanez couldn’t strand the runners in his major league debut.
Donovan Solano walked to force in a run, Merrill lined a single up the middle for the second run, and Kim added a sacrifice fly to the warning track in center to cap the scoring.
Merrill collected three of San Diego’s 10 hits, while Cronenworth and Manny Machado each bagged two.
The teams combined to leave 20 runners on base, 11 by the A’s.
Padres pitchers finished with 16 strikeouts.
–Field Level Media
