Padres open weekend series with win over Giants, vault back into top wild-card spot

SAN FRANCISCO — While the San Diego Padres were putting on their layers in preparation for a chilly night at Oracle Park, scores in two games on the other side of the country went final.

The New York Mets beat the Philadelphia Phillies, and the Atlanta Braves beat the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Shortly after the Padres finished their pregame meals — a well-reviewed build-your-own stir fry — the Arizona Diamondbacks were starting their game against the Milwaukee Brewers. That score would be updated throughout the night on the scoreboard beyond the left field foul pole, ultimately reflecting a Brewers victory.

The Padres were aware of what was happening.

“If people say they aren’t,” Joe Musgrove said earlier in the day, “they’re full of (expletive).”

Still, they say it is not all that important what happens elsewhere.

“I don’t think it changes a whole lot about how we’re approaching it. … At this point in the year, we know to get in we’ve got to win as many games as possible.”

They went out and played like they believed it too, jumping on San Francisco Giants starter Brandon Webb for three runs in the first inning and holding on for a 5-0 victory.

Dylan Cease got his team-leading 13th victory, allowing four hits in six scoreless innings and striking out 10 to zoom past 1,000 career strikeouts.

Tanner Scott, Jason Adam and Jeremiah Estrada each worked a perfect inning to close out the victory.

The Padres, who have 14 games remaining, moved into the top National League’s wild-card spot. They swapped spots with the Diamondbacks, who they lead by a half-game, and maintained their 11/2-game lead over the Mets, who hold the third (of three) wild-card spots, and 21/2-game lead over the Braves.

While the Padres say they’re not all that concerned with the out-of-town scoreboard, the part of the scoreboard that had been concerning of late was the section showing how they were faring.

They entered Friday having won just six of their previous 13 games.

They struck quickly Friday, as Luis Arraez led off the game with a single on the second pitch he saw from Webb and Tatis smashed the second pitch he saw a projected 433 feet and over the center field wall.

The Padres’ third run of the inning came when Manny Machado singled with one out, moved to second on a wild pitch and scored on Xander Bogaerts’ two-out double.

The only hits Webb allowed to the next 12 batters he faced were Jackson Merrill’s two doubles, but the Padres got another run after the second of those.

With Merrill on second with two outs in the fourth inning, Elías Díaz dribbled a ball into the grass in front of the mound that Webb picked up and lobbed well over the head of first baseman LaMonte Wade Jr., allowing Merrill to resume running home to make it 4-0.

Arraez followed with an infield single that gave the Padres runners at the corners before Tatis grounded out.

Webb was at 83 pitches through four innings, which brought his night to a close.

The Padres added a run in the ninth on a single by Profar, stolen base by pinch-runner Brandon Lockridge and double by Machado.

Cease turned in his best start in a month.

He entered Friday with a 5.27 ERA and 1.54 WHIP over his previous five starts. (That was after a seven-start stretch in which he had a 1.33 ERA and 0.74 WHIP.)

His strikeout of Donovan Walton to start the third inning was the 1,000th of his career. He also struck out the next two batters to end the third and got a groundout and strikeout to start the fourth and run his streak of outs to 10.

A walk and a single followed before the fourth inning ended when second baseman Jake Cronenworth dove to stop a hard grounder and flip the ball to Bogaerts covering second.

His final out came on a double by Patrick Bailey, as Tatis picked up the ball at the right field wall and threw into Cronenworth, who fired to Díaz, making his second start at catcher for the Padres. Díaz caught the ball in the left-handed batter’s box, turned and dove across the plate to tag out Helio Ramos.