Profar homers twice to lift San Diego to its 6th straight win, 6-4 over Baltimore

AP Baseball Writer

BALTIMORE (AP) — Jurickson Profar hit a pair of two-run homers, the second of which broke a ninth-inning tie, to send the San Diego Padres to their sixth straight victory, 6-4 over the Baltimore Orioles on Friday night.

Profar’s two-out drive in the ninth was the latest stumble by Orioles closer Craig Kimbrel (6-3), who blew saves in two of his previous three appearances and was booed by the Baltimore crowd after his inning of work Friday.

The Orioles had just scored two runs in the eighth to tie the game at 4 when Kimbrel came on. He allowed a one-out single and Profar’s 18th homer of the year.

“Just trying to hit a line drive right there,” Profar said.

Profar also went deep during a four-run sixth for the Padres, who are on their longest winning streak of the year. A day after San Diego’s Dylan Cease threw a no-hitter at Washington, the Padres went with a committee approach to the mound, using seven pitchers. Robert Suarez (5-1) got the final five outs.

“We don’t expect no-hitters or complete games, but his ability to get a complete game completely set us up for today,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “And then, gosh, not one guy that really wasn’t on point.”

Baltimore’s Grayson Rodriguez took a shutout into the sixth, but Luis Arraez singled to start the inning and Profar followed with a home run. Burch Smith came on in relief and retired Jake Cronenworth on a deep flyball, but shortstop Gunnar Henderson committed a throwing error on ex-Oriole Manny Machado’s routine grounder.

Xander Bogaerts followed with a drive to deep left, and Heston Kjerstad got a glove on it in front of the big wall at Camden Yards, but couldn’t hold on. That double gave San Diego a 3-2 lead. Jackson Merrill followed with an RBI double of his own.

Anthony Santander led off the bottom of the eighth with his 29th homer of the season to make it 4-3. Ryan O’Hearn followed with a double, and one out later Kjerstad beat out an infield chopper.

Suarez came on and allowed a tying sacrifice fly by Ryan Mountcastle. It was just the third blown save in 26 chances for Suarez.

Jordan Westburg opened the scoring with a solo homer in the second, and a throwing error by San Diego reliever Austin Davis helped the Orioles take a 2-0 lead in the fourth.

Baltimore traded for reliever Seranthony Domínguez, outfielder Cristian Pache and starting pitcher Zach Eflin earlier in the day. Domínguez threw a scoreless eighth, allowing two hits. Pache pinch ran in the eighth.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Padres: SS Ha-Seong Kim was shaken up after hitting an infield single but stayed in the game.

Orioles: Manager Brandon Hyde said 2B Jorge Mateo (left elbow) is dealing with some swelling and is waiting for that to go down before receiving testing.

UP NEXT

The Orioles send Dean Kremer (4-6) to the mound Saturday against San Diego’s Michael King (8-6).

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This version has been corrected to show that San Diego used seven pitchers, not eight, and that Austin Davis committed the error in the fourth inning.

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