Padres take final game against Rangers, win series

Kyle Hart returned from Triple-A El Paso and announced his presence with a dominating performance. Hart retired every batter he faced over 3 2/3 innings and recorded two strikeouts, while leading the San Diego Padres over the Texas Rangers, 4-1 at Petco Park, Sunday.

Hart followed David Morgan, who started the game for San Diego. Morgan allowed a first inning run and escaped a bases loaded jam with two outs in the inning with help from Jake Cronenworth. He made a diving catch on a line drive up the middle off the bat of Jonah Heim to prevent Texas from getting additional runs and to end the inning.

Morgan returned to the mound in the top of the second inning and allowed another hit before getting Kyle Higashioka to fly out. He was replaced by Hart, who proceeded to face the minimum number of Rangers hitters during his outing.

With the Padres behind 1-0 and pitching and defense performing well, the offense got to work. San Diego scored a run in the third, fourth, sixth and seventh innings en route to the win.

Luis Arraez tied the game in the bottom of the third inning with a two-out RBI-single to score Fernando Tatis Jr.

Tatis Jr., having scored a run, took the opportunity to drive in a run in the bottom of the fourth inning. Tatis Jr. doubled to left field, which allowed Trenton Brooks to score to put the Padres up, 2-1. Martin Maldonado tried to score from first base, but was ruled out after a review, ending the inning.

Maldonado made up for the out on the base paths with an RBI-single in the bottom of the sixth inning, which allowed Xander Bogaerts to score. The run scoring hit put San Diego ahead of Texas, 3-1.

Cronenworth capped the scoring for the Padres in the bottom of the seventh with an RBI-single to right field, which allowed Bryce Johnson to score and gave San Diego a 4-1 lead. Johnson was the pinch runner for Gavin Sheets, who singled with two outs in the inning. Johnson also stole a base to get into scoring position and that was followed by a Bogaerts walk.

Tatis Jr. Arraez, Bogaerts and Maldonado all recorded two hits in the game. Manny Machado went 0-for-4 and remains two hits shy of 2,000 for his career.

The Padres bullpen gave a team effort with Jeremiah Estrada, Jason Adam, Adrian Morejon and Robert Suarez combined for four scoreless innings, allowing just two hits while striking out six.

San Diego opens a series with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Monday at 6:40 p.m.

Padres take final game against Rangers, win series

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