PITTSBURGH — The Padres came East and turned around their season before it really even got going.
An 8-2 victory over the Pirates on Wednesday afternoon completed a road trip in which they won four of six, a reversal of the six-game homestand that began 2026.
In winning four of the final five games on the chilly trek through Boston and western Pennsylvania, the Padres began to see their offense become what they felt it could be.
“Especially with the weather we had and the guys we faced — some really, really good arms, and a team that is playing really well,” Jake Cronenworth said of the Pirates. “A testament to the group for sticking with it. It’s not easy. It’s only nine, 10 games in the season, which is hard, but at the same time, it’s a resilient group, and it’s a group that wants to win.”
The Padres (6-6) did so Wednesday by scoring all their runs in the final three innings after getting rid of Pirates starter Mitch Keller.
The teams went back and forth doing nothing offensively prior to a tit-for-tat in the seventh inning that produced six runs, with the Padres up 4-2 at the end of it. They added four more in the ninth inning before heading home for their next seven games.
After scoring a total of 12 runs and never more than three in their first five games, the Padres scored seven in the finale of their homestand and 27 runs on the six-game road trip. Even after the breakout game at Petco Park on April 1, they left San Diego batting .197 with a .561 OPS. They hit .228 with a .663 OPS over their past six games.
“It’s good,” Ramón Laureano said. “Especially, you know, these are results-based games.”
San Diego Padres pitcher Michael King delivers during the first inning of a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates in Pittsburgh, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Keller and Padres starter Michael King both got through six scoreless innings before the Padres jumped on reliever Justin Lawrence for four runs in the top of the seventh and the Pirates answered with two runs off King and Kyle Hart in the bottom of the inning.
Jeremiah Estrada stranded a runner in a scoreless eighth with help from left fielder Laureano making his second diving catch in two innings for the first out and right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. making a running catch at the warning track for the third out.
And after the Padres added four runs in the ninth, Mason Miller pitched for the first time as a major leaguer in his hometown and added two strikeouts to run his season total to 13. No reliever in major league history had ever struck out 13 batters in his first five appearances of a season while facing 18 or fewer batters.
The furious finish came after the two starting pitchers went about their quality outings in opposite manners.
Keller set down the Padres with machine-like efficiency for four innings and held on in his final two. King was behind in counts throughout much of the first four innings before retiring eight consecutive batters to get through the sixth.
The Padres squandered Gavin Sheets’ leadoff double in the second inning. The Pirates made nothing out of Nick Yorke’s double to start the second and Oneil Cruz’s double to start the third.
The difference early was that Keller was throwing strikes at an astonishing rate and quickly working through his innings, while King was laboring.
The Padres had seen 38 pitches through four innings, 28 of them strikes. King was at 65 pitches to that point.
But after his third walk began the bottom of the fourth inning, King got a fly ball out and his second double play and then worked through his first two 1-2-3 innings.
“Oh, I was bad today,” King said after throwing 95 pitches and being removed with runners on second and third and no outs in the seventh inning. “… I should have finished it. That’s my job.”
After threatening against Keller in the fifth and sixth but going hitless in four at-bats with runners in scoring position, the Padres got started in the seventh when Pirates shortstop Nick Gonzales dove to stop a hard grounder by Xander Bogaerts but threw wide of first base to put Bogaerts aboard.
A double by Miguel Andujar moved Bogaerts to third base, and a double by Nick Castellanos scored the two runners before Luis Campusano made the first out of the inning.
Cronenworth’s first home run of the season, to the seats beyond right-center field, made it 4-0.
Another error by another Pirates shortstop, Konnor Griffin, got Castellanos on to start the ninth before Luis Campusano drove in Bryce Johnson, who had replaced Castellanos on first base and stolen second.
Hits by Laureano and Tatis, a double steal executed by Tatis going home and Jackson Merrill, and another error helped complete the rout.
Andujar, making his first start of the season at third base while Manny Machado got a day off, went 2-for-4. Laureano also had two hits. Every other Padres starter except Merrill had a hit.
“It was a really good road trip,” manager Craig Stammen said. “Anytime you can go to the East Coast and come away with a 4-2 record, winning record on the road, that’s a big-time win. Big momentum jumper for us going back home. … Coming in after two tough series against the Tigers and Giants, not playing our best, we played pretty good and showed some toughness this trip.”