SAN DIEGO (AP) — Xander Bogaerts, Juan Soto and Ha-Seong Kim hit home runs and Joe Musgrove threw seven strong innings to lead the San Diego Padres to a 13-3 victory against the Washington Nationals on Friday night.
The superstar-laden Padres, who have struggled at the plate most of the season to tumble into fourth place in the NL West, scored in double digits in consecutive games for the first time this year. They won 10-0 at San Francisco on Thursday to avoid a four-game sweep.
Bogaerts hit a three-run shot, Soto connected to drive in two runs and Kim hit his first career leadoff homer. Soto and Kim each had three RBIs.
“It just felt great tonight,” manager Bob Melvin said. “It’s a Friday night, you know it’s going to be packed and we haven’t really put on a show like this with this many runs. Coming off our last homestand we played pretty well. Hopefully we’re getting our legs here and playing a lot better at home. Ball’s jumping a little more it seems like right now at home too, and that’s part of our game.
“These fans deserve a good show; glad we did it tonight.”
Bogaerts, the $280 million shortstop who has been bothered by a sore left wrist, capped the six-run fifth inning with a two-out shot into the left-field seats off Patrick Corbin, his eighth. His last homer came exactly a month earlier, at Washington. Kim hit a two-run single and Manny Machado had an RBI groundout that inning.
Kim drove Corbin’s third pitch over the fence in straightaway center field, his seventh.
“He’s kind of an engine for us,” Melvin said of Kim. “You put him at the top and now our lineup looks deep all the way to the bottom.”
Said Kim: “If you’re leading off, you get a lot of at-bats. That could put pressure on myself, but I try not to think about it. Just be solid, try to get good at-bats all the time.”
Musgrove (6-2) won his third straight start and fifth straight decision over six starts. He held the Nationals to one run and six hits, struck out seven and walked none.
“It looked like the ball was jumping out of his hand better,” Melvin said. “All his pitches were working.”
Soto homered in the eighth, his 14th. He also had an RBI double in the four-run seventh, when Nelson Cruz hit a two-run single and Trent Grisham an RBI double.
Corbin (4-9) allowed seven runs and seven hits in five innings.
Michael Chavis homered in the ninth for the Nationals.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Padres: Melvin said RHP Michael Wacha has shoulder fatigue and will skip his scheduled start Saturday night. … 1B Jake Cronenworth came out after getting hit by a pitch in the seventh.
UP NEXT
Nationals RHP Josiah Gray (4-6, 3.64 ERA) is scheduled to start the middle game of the series against RHP Matt Waldron, a knuckleballer who’ll be making his big league debut in Wacha’s place.
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