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ATLANTA — The pitching was good. The hitting was good. The Padres are …
It is best to wait on that assessment. That has been demonstrated over 101 games.
But on Tuesday, they put together the kind of game they knew they needed to and that has eluded them on a consistent basis while beating the Braves, 8-3, at Truist Park.
Walker Buehler allowed one hit over 5 2/3 innings, allowing two runs in the second inning and one baserunner thereafter before four relievers closed out the Padres’ second victory on a 10-game trip that is halfway completed.
Manny Machado homered twice, Jackson Merrill and Fernando Tatis Jr. did so once apiece and the Padres finished with 13 hits.
They will, at worst, remain 2 1/2 games back in the race for the final National League wild-card spot.
They are 2-3 at the start of a stretch identified by virtually everyone involved as having the potential to determine the course of their season, as these games are being viewed by the front office as a litmus test heading into the Aug. 3 trade deadline.
The Padres began this three-city trek with two losses, 7-6 in 10 innings on Friday and 6-1 on Saturday before beating the Royals 19-2 in the finale of that series Sunday. They lost 3-2 here Monday and were left to lament again how they so often do not match quality pitching with enough offense.
“You know it’s in there,” Ty France said late Monday night. “We just need to find a way to be more consistent with it and we’ve kind of got to figure it out fast.”
France’s two-out single in Tuesday’s first inning made sure the Padres did not squander singles by Fernando Tatis Jr. and Jake Cronenworth to start the game. After Manny Machado grounded into a double play, France went to the plate and extended his hitting streak to nine games by lining a single into center field to score Tatis.
The Padres were down 2-1 after two innings, and it looked like it might be another ugly outing for Buehler, who had allowed 20 runs in 11 innings over his previous three starts.
A pair of walks and a triple by Clairemont High School alumnus Jim Jarvis, the Braves’ No.9 hitter, made it 2-1.
Buehler walked three batters and threw 35 pitches in the second. In all, 26 of his 50 pitches to that point were strikes.
But he threw seven strikes in an eight-pitch third inning, seven strikes in an 11-pitch fourth and six strikes in a 10-pitch fifth.
He walked Matt Olson to start the sixth before getting Austin Riley on a fly ball to center field, surrendering a double to Michael Harris II and retiring Mauricio Dubón on a pop fly.
Padres manager Craig Stammen went to Yuki Matsui, and after walking the bases full the left-hander struck out Brewer Hicklen to end the inning.
By that time, the Padres led 6-2.
Merrill’s home run leading off the fourth inning tied the game 2-2, and the Padres added two runs on a walk by Sheets and doubles by Xander Bogaerts and Tatis.
The next two runs came on balls Machado sent to the seats in successive innings — the first off Braves starter Reynaldo Lopez in the fifth and the second off JR Ritchie in the sixth.
Ritchie retired the next five batters before walking Luis Rengifo with one out in the eighth and then hanging a full-count curveball over the center of the plate that Tatis hit 471 feet left-center field for the longest home run by a Padres player since Tommy Pham hit a ball 486 feet at Coors Field on Aug. 17, 2021. It was the second-longest of Tatis’ career, three feet shy of a blast he hit on June 16, 2021, also at Coors Field.
Matsui was charged with a run in the seventh inning when Bradgley Rodriguez allowed a single and balked in the runner Matsui left him. Adrian Morejón retired the Braves in order in the eighth and Mason Miller, pitching for the second time in nine days (not counting his four pitches in the All-Star game), survived a one-out single, a wild pitch and a walk in a scoreless ninth.
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