Padres blank Giants, surge to top of NL wild-card race

Fernando Tatis Jr. homered for the third straight game, Dylan Cease struck out 10 over six shutout innings and the San Diego Padres passed the Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League wild-card standings with a 5-0 road victory over the San Francisco Giants on Friday night.

Coupled with Arizona's 2-1 home loss to the Milwaukee Brewers, the win allowed the Padres (83-65) to move atop the NL wild-card race, a half-game ahead of the Diamondbacks (82-65).

In the opener of a three-game series, San Diego wasted no time jumping on Giants starter Logan Webb (12-10). Luis Arraez singled on the All-Star's second offering, and two pitches later, Tatis launched his 17th home run over the center field fence.

The Padres tacked on a third run in the inning on a single by Manny Machado, a wild pitch and an RBI double by Xander Bogaerts.

San Diego made it 4-0 in the fourth on a Webb throwing error, then watched as Cease (13-11) did most of the heavy lifting.

The right-hander allowed just four hits and two walks in his 97-pitch outing. Even the Giants' biggest hit of the night resulted in an out when right fielder Tatis and second baseman Jake Cronenworth teamed on a relay throw to gun down Heliot Ramos trying to score from first base on a Patrick Bailey double to end the sixth.

That was Cease's last pitch. Tanner Scott, Jason Adam and Jeremiah Estrada combined to retire the last nine Giants in order to complete the shutout.

The Padres capped the scoring in the ninth when Machado's second hit of the game, a double, scored pinch runner Brandon Lockridge, who had stolen second base on the first pitch of his major league career.

Webb was pulled after four innings, charged with four runs (three earned) on seven hits. He walked one and struck out four.

Arraez finished 3-for-4 with three singles to raise his NL-leading batting average to .320. It was his 18th game this season with at least three hits.

Arraez also walked and came up in the ninth with a shot at his seventh four-hit game of 2024, but he grounded out against Camilo Doval.

Rookie star Jackson Merrill added two doubles and a single, while Jurickson Profar chipped in with a pair of singles for the Padres, who recorded their 13th shutout win of the season.

Bailey had a double and a single for the Giants (72-76), who fell 9 1/2 games out of the final NL wild-card spot with just 14 games remaining.

--Field Level Media