Padres prevail in back-and-forth battle with Nationals

WASHINGTON - The Nationals entered Friday's game having scored more runs than any team in the major leagues this season and having allowed more runs than any team in the major leagues this season.

The Padres brought what was arguably the major leagues' best bullpen into the game.

The tussle the two teams engaged in over 3 hours, 18 minutes was pretty much all about all of that.

The Padres led, trailed, tied the game, trailed, tied it again, took the lead again in the seventh inning on Jackson Merrill's two-run homer and held on to win 7-5.

Five relievers covered the final 6⅓ innings and did not allow a run in the last four of those - after the Padres had tied the game 5-5 in the sixth on Ty France’s solo homer.

“It was a tie game, and we feel pretty good about coming down the stretch,” said closer Mason Miller, who got the game’s final four outs. “Offense scored a couple more runs. Good for them to kind of snap out of it and get seven today. For us in the bullpen, just doing our part. Been doing it.”

In the victory, which stopped a losing streak at four games, the Padres reached double digits in hits for the first time in 10 games and scored as many runs as they had in their previous five games combined.

That and the effort from Yuki Matsui, Jeremiah Estrada, Adrian Morejón, Jason Adam and Miller was enough to overcome starting pitcher Lucas Giolito allowing four runs in 2⅔ innings.

“They did a wondderful job picking me up,” Giolito said of the relievers. “The offense did a great job picking me up.”

Giolito yielded two runs in the first, one in the second and another in the third inning before departing with two outs and the bases loaded.

It essentially became a bullpen game for both teams, as the Nationals used an opener and then four more pitchers.

The counting was difficult in this one, except when keeping track of the clean innings. There were just four.

The Nationals scored in each of the first three innings. The Padres scored in three of the first four innings. It was 4-4 at that point.

The Nationals scored a run in the fifth. The Padres scored once in the sixth.

The Padres scored in the seventh because of another thing that characterizes the young Nationals, who are 28-28. They don't play very good defense.

In between outs by Gavin Sheets and Manny Machado, Xander Bogaerts reached base when second baseman Nasim Nuñez's throw to first sailed high.

That gave the Padres an extra at-bat, which Merrill took advantage of by pulling a 2-1 slider into the seats above the high wall in right field.

“That was what we needed,” Merrill said. “I wasn’t even trying to hit a homer. I was trying to keep the inning going with two outs. Once we went up, it’s really tough to get past our bullpen. They had chances too, but it’s tough to get past our bullpen.”

Merrill’s homer, his first in 20 games, put Estrada in position to get the win after he had let one of the runners he inherited from Matsui to score in the fifth but followed that up with a 1-2-3 sixth.

Morejón worked a perfect seventh and got the first out in the eighth. Adam got the second out of the eighth, though a pair of singles and a fielding error by Fernando Tatis Jr. in right field before that put runners at the corners.

Miller was brought in to face James Wood and walked the Nationals' leadoff hitter before ending the inning on Luis Garcia Jr.'s line drive to left field.

The right-hander earned his National League-leading 17th save by overcoming a leadoff walk in the ninth to retire the next three batters.

Before the relatively low-activity finish, runs were scored in nine of the first 13 half-innings, and the scoring began immediately.

Singles by Tatis and Gavin Sheets to start the game put runners at the corners with no outs.

It was the third time in four games the Padres had a runner in scoring position with no outs in the first inning. For the first time in that span, they scored.

Bogaerts' sacrifice fly gave them their first lead in five games.

It lasted for one inning, because a Padres pitcher allowed a first-inning home run for the fourth time in five games and the sixth time in eight games.

At the end of a 30-minute first inning, during which Giolito threw 35 pitches and Nationals opener Paxton Schultz threw 26, the Padres trailed 2-1.

It was the sixth time in nine games they were behind at the end of the first inning.

The deficit grew when Keibert Ruiz hit a solo home run in the second inning.

The Padres' first hit with a runner in scoring position after a drought of 37 at-bats dating to Friday, a single by Machado, scored Gavin Sheets in the top of the third to get the Padres to 3-2.

Giolitio got the first two outs in the bottom of the third before a walk, a wild pitch and a single got CJ Abrams around the bases and put the Nationals up by two.

Matsui replaced Giolito with the bases loaded and ended that inning and, after the Padres tied the game 4-4 in the top of the fourth, turned in the first 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the fourth.

Matsui was charged with an unfortunate run in the fifth inning after a ball that seemed like it would be an out was lost in the twilight by right fielder Ramón Laureano and gave Dylan Crews a leadoff single. Crews went to second when Matsui hit Abrams and scored when Jacob Young, the first batter to face Estrada, hit a two-out single.

“The biggest thing for us is getting the bullpen the lead,” France said. “If we do that, we’re gonna be in a really good spot to win baseball games.”

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This story was originally published May 29, 2026 at 7:18 PM.