SAN FRANCISCO — Manny Machado drilled a two-run homer and the San Diego Padres held off the San Francisco Giants 6-4 on Sunday night in San Francisco to extend their winning streak to seven games and tighten their grip on the National League's final wild-card spot.
Jackson Merrill opened the scoring with a two-run, opposite-field double off Logan Webb (8-9) in the first inning, and Machado followed an inning later with his 27th homer of the season, a two-run shot to left off Webb that pushed the lead to 5-0. The Giants answered in the bottom of the second when Andrew Knizner launched a two-run homer to left off Nick Pivetta to cut the deficit to 5-2.
Fernando Tatis Jr. delivered three hits, scored twice and drove in two, including a fourth-inning single that plated Ethan Salas after Salas tripled for his first hit in the majors in his 16th at-bat to make it 6-2. Webb was charged with six runs on eight hits over five innings with seven strikeouts and one walk. San Francisco chipped away with a run in the fifth and another in the sixth, when debutant Scott Bandura legged out an infield single to open the inning and scored on Christian Koss' base hit to trim the margin to 6-4.
Wandy Peralta (3-2) earned the win with 1 1/3 scoreless innings in relief, and Yuki Matsui closed it by striking out Jonah Cox swinging on a 10-pitch at-bat for his first save this season and the second of his three-season career. San Diego now leads the Arizona Diamondbacks by 2 1/2 games for the NL's last wild-card berth. The Padres were scheduled to face Rockies right-hander Tomoyuki Sugano (12-9, 5.30 ERA) in Denver on Monday night, while Giants right-hander Landen Roupp (9-13, 4.00) was set to oppose Cardinals left-hander Quinn Mathews (1-3, 4.11) in St. Louis.