The San Diego Padres soundly beat the Washington Nationals on Sunday, as the bats came alive in an 8-1 win.

MacKenzie Gore toed the rubber for Washington, and the Nationals’ ace is usually a formidable foe. However, Gore did not have his best stuff on Sunday. He surrendered eight runs on eight hits and three walks in only 2 1/3 innings, which is a new career high. It was Gore’s shortest outing of the year, and his ERA jumped to 3.59 on the season.

The big blow against Gore was a first-pitch grand slam off the bat of Xander Bogaerts in the first inning. Elias Diaz also took the southpaw deep in the third inning, which knocked him from the game.

After a slow start to the season, Bogaerts is hitting .339 in his last 30 games with a .402 on-base percentage. Bogaerts went 2-for-4 in the game with 4 RBIs and is up to .267 on the season. “I was trying to be aggressive,” Bogaerts said after the game about the homer off Gore.

Opposing Gore in the game was Nick Pivetta, who is rounding into form for the Padres.

Pivetta came into the game 3-0 in his last seven starts with a minuscule 1.82 ERA and a 0.85 WHIP. During that span, Pivetta walked only nine men while striking out 46 hitters. He improved on those numbers against Washington as Pivetta went six innings, allowing three hits and one walk. He struck out five batters and allowed one earned run. It was the 12th time this year Pivetta has gone at least six innings for the Padres. “Man, he is a guy who you know is going to show up every five days,” Bogaerts said about Pivetta.

The Nationals provided no real threat to the Padres after San Diego got out to an early lead.

Riley Adams homered off Pivetta in the bottom of the fifth inning, but Washington did little else with the bats.

Jackson Rutledge pitched well for the Nationals in mop-up duty. The right-hander went 3 2/3 innings, allowing two hits and no runs while striking out three.

San Diego earns the series victory with the win and remains in the third NL Wild Card spot.

Up next for the Padres is a three-game series with the Marlins, which starts on Monday.

There has been no announcement yet of who the Padres will start in the game. Eury Perez (3-2, 3.18 ERA) will take the hill for Miami.

The first pitch is scheduled for 3:40 PDT.