Luis Arraez returned to the second spot in the lineup and delivered the most important swing of the night for the San Diego Padres in the bottom of the seventh inning. Arraez hit a solo home run to right field off Arizona Diamondbacks starter Merrill Kelly, which powered San Diego to a 1-0 win at Petco Park, Tuesday.
Arraez got ahead of Kelly 2-0 and turned on a fastball that went deep to right field. Arraez knew he got it off the bat and celebrated with an intense stare toward the visiting dugout before leaving the plate. It was a much needed spark of power for San Diego that proved to be the difference in the game.
Starter Nick Pivetta had another dominant outing at home for the Padres and got some support from his young centerfielder, Jackson Merrill, to preserve a scoreless game in the top of the fifth.
Corbin Carroll hit a fly ball to center field that took Merrill to the wall. Merrill squared up the ball and leaped that the wall to make the catch and take away what would have been a two-run home run from Carroll.
The dazzling play from Merrill came after Pivetta provided some magic of his own in the top of the fourth inning.
The Diamondbacks had the bases loaded with two outs in the top of the inning. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. had a 3-2 count and Pivetta struck him out with a high fastball to keep the game tied 0-0 heading to the bottom half of the inning.
The strikeout of Gurriel Jr. came after Pivetta struck out Eugenio Suarez with the bases loaded and one out in the inning. Those strikeouts followed an intentional walk to left-handed batter Josh Naylor, which loaded the bases and brought two right-handed hitters up to face right-handed Pivetta.
Pivetta completed 5 2/3 innings without allowing a run. He gave up two hits, walked three and struck out seven. Pivetta came out with a runner on second base and Jeremiah Estrada made sure he stayed there. Estrada struck out Suarez on three pitches to end the inning and keep Arizona off the scoreboard.
Fernando Tatis Jr. must have been inspired by the Merrill game-saving catch earlier in the contest and provided one of his own in the top of the eighth inning. Naylor got enough to put it over the wall in right field, but he did not count on Tatis Jr. bringing it back.
The play by Tatis Jr. kept San Diego in front and allowed the newly named two-time MLB All-Star Robert Suarez to come in for the save. Suarez got Jake McCarthy, Randal Grichuk and Alek Thomas to ground out, line out and strikeout to preserve the win.
The Padres play the Diamondbacks, Wednesday at 6:40 p.m.