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Padres do just enough to extend winning streak against Pirates

Jeff Sanders, The San Diego Union-Tribune on

Published in Baseball

SAN DIEGO — Nick Pivetta continues to make himself at home at Petco Park.

The first-year Padre continued his run of dominance in his new home park, striking out eight over six strong innings to outduel the Pirates’ Mitch Keller in a 3-2 win in front of a sellout crowd of 42,579 on Friday night.

The victory was the Padres’ 10th straight against the Pirates, a streak that dates back to July 2023.

The Padres went 6-0 last year against the Pirates and won all three games in Pittsburgh earlier this month.

They won the first game of this series despite the Pirates out-hitting them 7-3.

But they did make their hits count, with Luis Arraez doubling into the left-field corner with Fernando Tatis Jr. on the run to start a go-ahead, two-run rally in the sixth inning.

Pivetta handed the game to the bullpen from there and Robert Suarez finished off three shutout innings with a perfect ninth, although not without drama.

After a scoreless seventh from Jeremiah Estrada, Jason Adam loaded the bases in the eighth inning after recording the first two outs, forcing Padres manager Mike Shildt to call on Suarez for his first four-out save of the season.

The first of those outs was striking out Henry Davis to end the eighth on what should have been ball four, prompting a heated exchange that led to plate umpire Edwin Jimenez ejecting interim Pirates manager Don Kelly.

The next inning, Suarez struck out Ke’Bryan Hayes and Adam Frazier before Tommy Pham bounced out to end the game.

Pivetta set the tone with six innings of two-run ball to improve to 5 for 6 in quality starts at Petco Park, where he has a 1.69 ERA compared to 4.32 on the road.

For a stretch, this one was as dominant as any of them as he rebounded from Andrew McCutchen’s one-out single in the first inning to strike out six straight hitters.

 

A double-play ball helped Pivetta out of the fourth inning after Bryan Reynolds’ one-out double.

Back-to-back singles in the sixth inning eventually led to the Pirates briefly erasing the Padres’ 1-0 lead. Pivetta got the next two outs to nearly escape the jam, but Spencer Horwitz lined a two-run single to right-center to get on the board.

The lead did not last long.

Tatis led off the bottom of the inning with a walk, took off for second on Keller’s second pitch to Arraez and scored easily when the three-time batting champion sent a ball rattling in the left-field corner.

Then Arraez moved to third base on Manny Machado’s fly ball to right field and scored on a contact play when Pirates second baseman Adam Frazier short-hopped a ball to the plate after fielding a bouncer from Jackson Merrill.

The two-run rally ended what had been a strong start from Keller, who allowed just three hits in giving up three runs in six innings.

Keller had retired the first 11 hitters he faced — including a one-two-three first on seven pitches — when Manny Machado lined a ball into the right-center alley and hustled into second base for a double.

Two pitches later, the Padres were leading.

Merrill slapped a 1-0 change-up to the right of shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa. He had plenty of time to get in front of the ball, but it appeared as if Manny Machado, making his way toward third base, disrupted his view and the ball kicked off his leg into shallow center field, allowing the Padres’ third baseman to scoot him for a 1-0 lead.

The Padres’ last loss to the Pirates was July 26, 2023, when they went 1-5 against Pittsburgh.


©2025 The San Diego Union-Tribune. Visit sandiegouniontribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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