WASHINGTON (AP) — Blake Snell struck out 10 in six sharp innings, Juan Soto reached base three times and the San Diego Padres wrapped up a hectic weekend with a 6-0 win over the Washington Nationals on Sunday.
On Friday, with so much focus on Soto’s return to Washington after a major trade this month, the Padres found out star shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. had been suspended 80 games after testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance.
Then Saturday, San Diego manager Bob Melvin was upset with a disputed call at home plate in a one-run loss. Sunday was smoother all around because of Snell.
“He's on quite a roll,” Melvin said.
Snell (5-6) threw his longest scoreless outing since going seven scoreless innings Aug. 31, 2021. He allowed three hits and walked none.
“Hard to prepare at noon for a game, that's tough,” Snell said. “I was able to figure out sleep and get that locked in. And I felt better than I thought I was going to feel, so I was excited about that.”
The Nationals were less excited about his outing.
“Snell was really good,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez said. "His fastball had good life. He was throwing strikes. The slider was good. But he was pumping strikes, and we couldn’t get nothing going. Our plan was to make him throw strikes, and he did that. But his fastball location was really good, and his breaking ball was good.”
Paolo Espino (0-5) gave up four runs in 5 2/3 innings. He has not recorded a win for 14 consecutive starts.
Wil Myers, whose playing time was reduced by the acquisitions of Soto and Josh Bell, had three hits for the Padres. Soto singled and walked twice.
Myers hit an RBI double in the second. Jurickson Profar drew a leadoff walk in the third, Soto and Manny Machado singled and a grounder made it 3-0.
Myers drove in another run in the sixth and the Padres added two runs in the ninth.
“You want to incorporate everybody,” Melvin said. “This guy's been a starter here for quite some time.”
Nationals rookie first baseman Joey Meneses had two hits. He now has 14 in his 10 career big league games, the most by any Nationals player (2005-present) in that span. Soto, Luis García and Ian Desmond all had 12 hits in their first 10 games.
