Travis d’Arnaud homered twice and knocked in four runs Sunday to help Chris Sale win his MLB-high 13th game as the visiting Atlanta Braves stopped the San Diego Padres 6-3.
Sale (13-3) went five innings, allowing four hits and a run with two walks and four strikeouts. Four relievers got the final 12 outs, with closer Raisel Iglesias pitching the ninth inning to bag his 22nd save in 24 chances as Atlanta won for the sixth time in its last nine games.
Randy Vasquez (2-5) absorbed the loss despite pitching decently in his five innings, allowing four hits and two runs with a walk and five punchouts. The result dropped San Diego to 2-6 on its eight-game homestand before the All-Star break.
Atlanta took the lead for good in the fifth when Adam Duvall lined an RBI single to left that scored d’Arnaud for a 2-1 edge. He led off with a walk, stole second and reached third via Eddie Rosario’s grounder to second.
An inning later, d’Arnaud clouted a three-run homer to center with two outs against reliever Stephen Kolek for a 5-1 lead. It scored Matt Olson and Marcell Ozuna, whose single kept the inning going.
The Padres closed within 5-3 in the seventh when pinch hitter Luis Campusano cracked a two-run homer to right, his sixth of the year, off reliever A.J. Minter. San Diego pushed the tying runs on base later in the inning as Jurickson Profar singled and Donovan Solano walked but Joe Jimenez quelled the threat by getting Manny Machado to line out to left.
In the eighth, d’Arnaud added an insurance run with his ninth homer of the year, a 445-foot blast to deep left-center off Jeremiah Estrada.
Xander Bogaerts initiated scoring in the first with the Padres’ third straight single off Sale, scoring Solano. But Sale allowed just one more hit during his stint.
Vasquez rolled through his first three innings but the Braves cracked the code in the fourth as Olson knocked in the tying run with an RBI single to left-center that plated Ozzie Albies.
–Field Level Media
