Padres are patient, then pounce in 12-3 rout of Nationals

WASHINGTON — The Padres clearly had a plan.

It did not immediately pay off. There was a bit of a scare.

But a laugher quickly ensued, and the Padres are rolling.

They won their fourth consecutive game on Wednesday. They scored a dozen runs, had a season-high 20 hits. Matt Waldron turned in his 10th quality start in 11 outings.

By the time all that played out, it might have been easy to forget that a 12-3 victory over the Nationals actually required a comeback from three runs down.

In the end — actually well before the end — the Padres accomplished what they set out to do and more.

A long first inning, in which the Padres saw a lot of pitches but didn’t score, was followed by the Nationals taking a 3-0 lead against Waldron in the bottom of the first.

That was one more run than Padres starting pitchers had allowed in the first four games on this trip all together.

The Padres scored 12 unanswered runs over the next four innings — four in the second, two in the third, five in the fourth and one in the fifth.

Jackson Merrill had four hits, including a triple and a double. Jurickson Profar’s two-run homer, his team-leading 16th of the season, put the Padres up for good. Kyle Higashioka followed an RBI double in the third inning with a two-run homer in the fourth. Xander Bogaerts was 4 for 4 with a walk.

In all, their 20 hits were their most since having 21 on June 15, 2022 against the Cubs. The nine run margin of victory was their fifth largest of the season.

It wasn’t so prolific from the start.

The Padres made Nationals rookie Patrick Mitchell throw 31 pitches in the first inning and left two runners on without scoring.

Then the Nationals pounced on Waldron — with their second, third and fourth batters going single, single, home run — before two outs were made in the bottom of the first.

Waldron had allowed the Nationals two runs on six hits on June 24 at Petco Park. They were 0 for 8 against his knuckleball. All three of those hits Wednesday were off his knuckleball.

He also allowed a two-out single, and that runner stole second base before Waldron ended the inning with a strikeout finished with a knuckleball. That was his 26th pitch.

He did not allow another hit while completing six innings in 90 pitches.

Mitchell was done after three innings, having allowed six runs and thrown 77 pitches.

Ha-Seong Kim continued what the Padres started in the first by walking to start the second inning. Merrill followed with a double that moved Kim to third before Higashioka and Bryce Johnson made outs, putting the Padres on the verge of again squandering an opportunity.

But Luis Arraez flared a single over shortstop CJ Abrams to drive in both runners, and Profar drove a 2-2 fastball 417 feet to straightaway center field for his second home run of the night to give the Padres a 4-3 lead.