Jurickson Profar hit two home runs, including a two-run shot in the ninth inning that broke a tie, leading the San Diego Padres to a 6-4 win over the Baltimore Orioles on Friday night.
Profar’s second home run came off Orioles closer Craig Kimbrel (6-3), who had already struggled in recent games and was booed by the Baltimore crowd. The Orioles had tied the game with two runs in the eighth inning before Kimbrel allowed a single and Profar’s 18th home run of the season.
Profar also homered earlier in a four-run sixth inning for the Padres, who are now on their longest winning streak of the year.
After San Diego’s Dylan Cease threw a no-hitter at Washington the previous day, the Padres used a strategy of seven pitchers in this game. Robert Suarez (5-1) got the last five outs.
Baltimore’s Grayson Rodriguez had kept the Padres scoreless until the sixth inning, when Luis Arraez’s single and Profar’s home run broke the shutout. Burch Smith then replaced Rodriguez but allowed errors and a couple of key hits, including a double by Xander Bogaerts and a follow-up RBI double by Jackson Merrill, giving San Diego a 3-2 lead.
Anthony Santander hit his 29th home run of the season in the eighth inning to make it 4-3, and Ryan O’Hearn’s double along with Heston Kjerstad’s infield single added more pressure.
