Michael King pitched six scoreless innings, Manny Machado scored two runs and David Peralta hit a home run as the San Diego Padres beat Pittsburgh 3-0 on Tuesday night, handing the Pirates their ninth straight loss.
The Padres won for the 18th time in 21 games since July 20, capturing their eighth consecutive series, while the Pirates lost for the 11th time in 12 games.
King (10-6) struck out 10 players, allowed seven hits and issued no walks. 70 of his 93 pitches were strikes. The 29-year-old right-hander won for the fifth time in six decisions since June 29.
Pirates starter Luis Ortiz (5-3) allowed two runs, one earned run and three hits with three strikeouts and two walks in five innings.
Ortiz worked his way out of a bases-loaded situation with no outs in the first inning, allowing an unearned run on a sacrifice fly by Machado that scored Luis Arraez and gave San Diego a 1-0 lead. Pittsburgh’s Ji Hwan Bae made a great pike catch of Machado’s sinking liner to prevent further damage.
With Machado on first base in the fourth inning, Bae robbed San Diego’s Jackson Merrill of the ball with a diving catch near the center field wall to end the inning.
Peralta hit a 400-foot throw to right center field against Ortiz in the fifth inning, giving San Diego a 2-0 lead.
Machado brought Arraez home with a third-base single in the eighth inning against reliever Kyle Nicolas, securing an unearned safety run.
The Pirates hit eight but left seven runners behind. Pittsburgh reliever Ben Heller pitched two scoreless innings.
Jason Adam and Tanner Scott each threw a scoreless inning as relief pitchers for the Padres. San Diego closer Robert Suarez pitched a scoreless ninth inning for his 27th save.
TRAINING ROOM
Pirates: LHP Marco Gonzales was placed on the 60-day injured list with a strained left forearm. He missed three months of play from mid-April to mid-July because of the same injury. … RHP Ryder Ryan replaced Gonzales on the roster after being optioned from the Triple-A Indianapolis Indians on Monday.
Next
Pirates RHP Mitch Keller (10-6, 3.56) will face Padres LHP Martin Pérez (2-5, 4.78) in the finale of the three-game series on Wednesday.
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