Darvish throws 6 strong innings, Merrill and Profar hit home runs as the Padres beat the Astros 3-1

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Yu Darvish had his best outing since being sidelined for more than three months, and rookies Jackson Merrill and Jurickson Profar each hit a home run as the San Diego Padres beat the Houston Astros 3-1 on Monday night.

The Padres took a 2 1/2 game lead, secured the top NL wild card and remained 3 1/2 games behind the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West.

Houston’s lead in the AL West shrank to four games over Seattle.

Padres leadoff hitter Luis Arraez struck out for the first time since Aug. 10, ending a 141-appearance hitless streak, when he went down with a hit against rookie Spencer Arrighetti in the bottom of the second inning.

That puts him in a tie with Padres Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn, who holds the fifth-longest streak over the last 40 seasons. Gwynn, who played his entire career with the Padres, had the longest such streak, 170 batting appearances in 1995.

Arraez, the DH, later left the game due to a knee injury. He was rocked on a slide when he was struck out at home plate in the fifth inning. Arraez initially stayed in the game and hit a double in the seventh inning, but cautiously left the field after being replaced by pinch-runner Tyler Wade.

“He jammed his knee into the plate,” said manager Mike Shildt. “Reports say he’s stable and sore. You could tell after he did the double.”

“What a player,” Shildt said, adding that Arraez told him before his seventh-inning at-bat, “I can hit.”

Darvish (6-3) allowed three hits in six scoreless innings, his longest outing in three starts since a three-plus month layoff during which he was on the injured and suspended list. He struck out three times and walked two.

“He was great. He was really fantastic,” Shildt said. “Very efficient, controlled counts, the fastball had life. I thought he was Yu at his best. He was unbelievable. He got us through six and we could have kept up with him even more, but he was at that number. He had done his part.”

Darvish threw 79 pitches.

The tall right-hander said through an interpreter that he was feeling “pretty good.” “The two-seamer worked really well and I could rely on it a lot. The off-speed pitches were pretty effective too.”

Entering a series with playoff implications, Darvish said, “You try not to put too much pressure on yourself, but obviously you’re playing against a really good team, so you’re super focused and trying to make the shots.”

Darvish said there will soon be no more space restrictions.

“That’s what I would think in terms of the number of parking spaces,” he said.

Robert Suarez threw a perfect ninth inning for his 33rd save.

Profar’s first hit of the eighth inning, his 23rd home run, was his fourth in a row. He missed the cycle by a triple.

Merrill solidified his NL Rookie of the Year prospects when he drove Arrighetti’s first pitch an estimated 413 feet into center field in the fourth inning. It was his 24th home run and tied with Nate Colbert (1969) for second among Padres rookies. Hunter Renfroe hit 26 home runs in 2017.

Colbert’s franchise record of 163 home runs, which stood since 1974, fell to Manny Macahdo last week.

Machado hit an RBI double in the first.

Jose Altuve hit a double for Houston in the eighth inning and scored on Yordan Alvarez’s single.

Arrighetti (7-13) allowed two runs and eight hits in five innings. He struck out three times and walked once.

Next

Astros RHP Hunter Brown (11-8, 3.59 ERA) and Padres RHP Michael King (12-9, 3.06) are scheduled to start Tuesday night.

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