Padres hold on to beat Astros; magic number down to 6

It had been a good night for a team close enough to its goal that it could be affected by events thousands of miles away.

The Padres inched closer to that goal even before Yu Darvish returned to something resembling his best form and the Padres began building a lead that survived a few missed opportunities and a big scare and led to a 3-1 victory over the Astros on Monday night.

Prior to the proceedings at Petco Park, the Braves’ 9-0 loss to the Dodgers was completed. That meant the Padres’ magic number — any combination of Padres victories and Braves losses that would eliminate Atlanta and assure the Padres a playoff spot — was down to seven on its way to six by night’s end.

And as the Padres and Astros were playing, the Rockies completed a comeback victory over the Diamondbacks, meaning the Padres also could potentially move closer to clinching a home series in the first round of the playoffs.

The Padres’ lead over the Diamondbacks is now 2½ games in the race for the top wild-card spot.

Getting to their fourth consecutive victory came with moments both frightful and frustrating along the way.

Padres lead-off hitter Luis Arraez injured his knee making an out at home. Arraez batted after that but hobbled to second on a double and was replaced by a pinch-runner. The preliminary report was that the knee is “stable,” manager Mike Shildt said late Monday; the club should know more Tuesday.

And Darvish’s six scoreless innings and a scoreless seventh by Jason Adam were followed by Tanner Scott yielding a run in the eighth inning. But after Jurickson Profar got that run back with a homer in the bottom of the eighth, Robert Suarez bounced back from yielding a game tying-homer in the ninth Sunday to work 1-2-3 ninth Monday.

The Padres led virtually from the start.

Two-out doubles by Profar and Manny Machado gave the Padres a 1-0 lead in the first inning.

They kept taking long at-bats — four of them lasting at least eight pitches between the second and third inning — and had Astros starter Spencer Arrighetti up to 73 pitches through three innings.

But he stranded runners at first and second by ending the second inning with the first strikeout of Arraez since Aug. 10, a span of 141 plate appearances.

Profar lined a one-out single on the eighth pitch of his at-bat in the third inning, but Arrighetti struck out Machado on eight pitches and catcher Victor Caratini threw out Profar trying to steal.

Arrigheti got through the fourth inning on 10 pitches, but Jackson Merrill hit the first of them a projected 413 feet to center field to make it 2-0.

Darvish had thrown just 33 pitches after three innings and 46 after four. The Astros had two baserunners to that point, with longtime battery mate Caratini walking on four pitches in the second inning and Jose Altuve getting a single in the third.

Darvish threw just 63 pitches in each of his first two starts back from a three-month absence while working through an elbow injury and dealing with a family matter.

Manager Mike Shildt had the bullpen on alert in the fifth inning after a one-out walk by Jeremy Peña and two-out infield single by Mauricio Dubón, but Darvish ended the inning by getting Altuve on a fielder’s choice grounder.

The Padres again helped Arrighetti escape in the bottom of the fifth inning, as they failed to score despite successive one-out singles by Arraez, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Profar.

On the last of those, a sinking liner to left field, third base coach Tim Leiper sent Arraez home, where he was tagged out after a perfect throw by Jason Heyward to Caratini. On the play, Arraez appeared to bang his right knee on the dirt as he did a sort of sideways tumble over Caratini.

He stayed down for a few minutes while being checked on by athletic trainer Ben Fraser. Arraez eventually walked back to the dugout unassisted and doubled with two outs in the seventh inning.

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