MLB

Houston Astros at San Diego Padres

· Major League Baseball
Houston Astros
81-69, 39-37 Away
Final
1 - 3
San Diego Padres
86-65, 41-35 Home

Darvish throws 6 strong innings, Merrill and Profar homer as the Padres beat the Astros 3-1

The Padres took a 2 1/2-game lead over Arizona for the top NL wild card and stayed 3 1/2 games behind the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West.

Houston's lead in the AL West dropped to four games over idle Seattle.

Padres leadoff hitter Luis Arraez struck out for the first time since Aug. 10, snapping a streak of 141 plate appearances without whiffing. He went down swinging against rookie Spencer Arrighetti to end the second inning.

It tied Padres Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn for the fifth-longest streak in the last 40 seasons. Gwynn, who played his entire career with the Padres, had the longest such streak, 170 plate appearances in 1995.

Arraez, the DH, later left the game with a knee injury. He was shaken up on a slide as he was tagged out at home plate in the fifth. Arraez initially stayed in the game and doubled in the seventh, but walked off the field gingerly after being replaced by pinch-runner Tyler Wade.

“He jammed his knee in the plate,” manager Mike Shildt said. “Reports are stable, sore. You could tell after he legged out the double.”

“What a gamer,” said Shildt, who added that Arraez told him before his at-bat in the seventh, “`I can hit.'”

Darvish (6-3) allowed three hits in six scoreless innings, his longest outing in three starts since a layoff of more than three months while he was on the injured list and restricted list. He struck out three and walked two.

“He was great. He was really fantastic," Shildt said. “Very efficient, controlled counts, fastball had a life to it. I thought he was vintage Yu. He was tremendous. Got us through six and we could have rode with him more, but he was at that number. He'd done his part.”

Darvish threw 79 pitches.

The tall right-hander said through an interpreter that he felt “pretty good. The two-seamer was working really well and I was able to rely on that heavily. The off-speed pitches were pretty effective as well.”

As far as starting a series with playoff implications, Darvish said: “You try to kind of not put too much pressure on yourself, but obviously, you're going against a really good team so you're super focused and trying to execute pitches.”

Darvish said he's getting closer to having no pitch restrictions.

“I would think so, as far as the number of pitches go,” he said.

Robert Suarez pitched a perfect ninth for his 33rd save.

Profar’s leadoff shot in the eighth, his 23rd homer, was his fourth straight hit. He fell a triple shy of the cycle.

Merrill continued to make his case for NL Rookie of the Year when he drove Arrighetti’s first pitch of the fourth an estimated 413 feet to straightaway center field. It was his 24th homer and tied Nate Colbert (1969) for second among Padres rookies. Hunter Renfroe hit 26 in 2017.

Colbert’s franchise record of 163 homers, which had stood since 1974, fell to Manny Macahdo last week.

Machado hit an RBI double in the first.

Jose Altuve doubled leading off the eighth for Houston and scored on Yordan Alvarez's single.

Arrighetti (7-13) allowed two runs and eight hits in five innings. He struck out three and walked one.

UP NEXT

Astros RHP Hunter Brown (11-8, 3.59 ERA) and Padres RHP Michael King (12-9, 3.06) are scheduled to start Tuesday night.

How can I watch Houston Astros vs. San Diego Padres?
  • TV Channel: Astros at Padres 2022 MLB Baseball, is broadcasted on MLB.TV.
  • Online streaming: Sign up for Fubo.

Matchup Prediction

Padres: 61.3%
Astros: 38.7%
*According to ESPN's Basketball Power Index

Scoring Summary

9th Inning Meyers flied out to right.
9th Inning Heyward flied out to left.
9th Inning Peña grounded out to first.
9th Inning Suarez relieved Scott
9th Inning Lockridge in left field.
8th Inning Solano grounded into fielder's choice to shortstop, Cronenworth out at second.

Statistics

https://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/teamlogos/mlb/500/hou.png&h=100&scale=crop&w=100&location=originHOU https://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/teamlogos/mlb/500/sd.png&h=100&scale=crop&w=100&location=originSD
1 Games Played 1
1 Team Games Played 1
0 Hit By Pitch 0
15 Ground Balls 13
4 Strikeouts 6
1 Runs Batted In 3
0 Sacrifice Hit 0
6 Hits 13
1 Stolen Bases 1
2 Walks 2
1 Catcher Interference 0
1 Runs 3
0 Ground Into Double Play 1
0 Sacrifice Flies 0
33 At Bats 33
0 Home Runs 2
0 Grand Slam Home Runs 0
12 Runners Left On Base 14
0 Triples 0
0 Game Winning RBIs 1
0 Intentional Walks 0
1 Doubles 3
14 Fly Balls 14
0 Caught Stealing 2
122 Pitches 148
0 Games Started 0
1 Pinch At Bats 0
0 Pinch Hits 0
0.0 Player Rating 0.0
1 Is Qualified 1
1 Is Qualified In Steals 1
7 Total Bases 22
36 Plate Appearances 35
0.0 Projected Home Runs 324.0
1 Extra Base Hits 5
1.5 Runs Created 7.5
.182 Batting Average .394
.000 Pinch Hit Average .000
.212 Slugging Percentage .667
.121 Secondary Average .303
.229 On Base Percentage .429
.441 OBP Pct + SLG Pct 1.095
1.1 Ground To Fly Ball Ratio 0.9
1.5 Runs Created Per 27 Outs 8.8
13.0 Batter Rating 38.0
0.0 At Bats Per Home Run 16.5
1.00 Stolen Base Percentage 0.33
3.39 Pitches Per Plate Appearance 4.23
.030 Isolated Power .273
0.50 Walk To Strikeout Ratio 0.33
.056 Walks Per Plate Appearance .057
-.061 Secondary Average Minus Batting Average -.091
2.0 Runs Produced 6.0
1.0 Runs Ratio 1.0
0.3 Patience Ratio 0.7
0.2 Balls In Play Average 0.4
67.0 MLB Rating 93.8
0.0 Offensive Wins Above Replacement 0.0
0.0 Wins Above Replacement 0.0

Game Information

Petco Park

Location: San Diego, California
Attendance: 44,443 | Capacity:

2024 American League West Standings

TEAM W L PCT GB STRK
Houston 88 73 .547 - W2
Seattle 85 77 .525 3.5 W4
Texas 78 84 .481 10.5 W3
Oakland 69 93 .426 19.5 L3
Los Angeles 63 99 .389 25.5 L6

2024 National League West Standings

TEAM W L PCT GB STRK
Los Angeles 98 64 .605 - W5
San Diego 93 69 .574 5 L1
Arizona 89 73 .549 9 W1
San Francisco 80 82 .494 18 L1
Colorado 61 101 .377 37 L3
Full Standings