San Diego Padres starting pitcher Yu Darvish works against a Miami Marlins batter during the first inning of a baseball game Wednesday, May 29, 2024, in San Diego.
10:56 JST, May 30, 2024
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Braxton Garrett outlasted Yu Darvish, Josh Bell had three hits and scored twice and the Miami Marlins beat the sloppy San Diego Padres 9-1 on Wednesday to avoid a sweep.
Jesús Sánchez hit a solo homer and Jazz Chisholm Jr. had two hits and drove in two runs as the Marlins had a season-high 16 hits and snapped the Padres’ three-game winning streak. The Padres fell to 13-19 at home.
Garrett (2-0) was impressive through five innings, allowing one run and six hits with two strikeouts and no walks. His only major mistake was allowing Ha-Seong Kim’s leadoff home run in the third, his seventh.
Garrett made just his fourth start this season after spending the first 38 games on the injured list due to a left shoulder impingement suffered in spring training. He was coming off his first career shutout — on just 95 pitches — in a win at Arizona on Friday night.
“Not super sharp, but I was able to get through it was just one run,” Garrett said. “It was one of those days where I felt like I was just missing and when I tried to make that adjustment, I missed the record. It wasn’t sharp, but we fought hard.”
He was supported with some nice defensive actions. With runners on first and second base, and two outs in the third, Bell, the first baseman, made a nice diving stop on Jake Cronenworth’s grounder and threw him out to end the inning. In the fifth, left fielder Nick Gordon barehanded Fernando Tatis Jr.’s liner carom off the base of the wall and threw it out at second.
“At this level you have to play defense,” manager Skip Schumaker. “When we pitch and defend, we usually win. Today was another example of that.”
Schumaker said Garrett “was probably not as sharp as he wanted to be, but every time he throws, we have a really good chance to win.”
The Marlins went 3-3 on a swing through Arizona and San Diego.
“We faced a very good lineup, our pitchers did very well, our offense finally broke through today and that’s good to see,” Schumaker said. “Arizona, I thought we did great. We also had the chance to win two games here, but those are the big competitions.”
Darvish (4-3) was out after three innings and 66 pitches. He allowed three runs, two earned and six hits, with two strikeouts and one walk. It was his second loss in a row after winning his previous four starts.
“Darvish is not easy to face,” Schumaker said. “He lives on the edge and you will get into trouble if you chase him and start guessing with him. So we put it in the middle of the board. I thought the boys did really well.”
In his last start, Darvish allowed four home runs against the New York Yankees in an 8-0 loss on Friday night.
San Diego Padres’ Yu Darvish leaves the field during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees, Friday, May 24, 2024, in San Diego.
The Marlins took advantage of Padres mistakes, including two errors.
No. 9 hitter Nick Fortes hit an RBI double with two outs in the second when right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr., who won the NL Gold Glove and Platinum Glove awards last year, took a bad route. Chisholm followed with an RBI single.
A throwing error by Padres third baseman Manny Machado led to a run in the third. The Marlins piled on with three runs in the fifth. Jake Burger, Otto Lopez and Vidal Bruján all hit RBI singles for a 6-1 lead.
Sánchez homered with one out in the sixth, his third, and Chisholm hit an RBI triple in the seventh.
