Arizona did not wait for the Padres to settle in. Lars Nootbaar homered in the first inning, Geraldo Perdomo tripled home another run and Corbin Carroll added a sacrifice fly. The three-run opening frame started an 11-4 Diamondbacks victory Friday at Petco Park and left San Diego chasing the game all night.
Jordan Lawlar extended the lead with a second-inning homer. The Padres answered with two runs in the bottom half when Luis Campusano's groundout scored Jackson Merrill and Jake Cronenworth singled home Xander Bogaerts. At 4-2, the game had narrowed. Nolan Arenado widened it again in the third, driving a two-run homer to left after Perdomo reached.
Casey Mize absorbed that early damage and more. The right-hander allowed seven runs on seven hits and two walks in four innings, striking out one. Arizona scored in each of his four frames. Gabriel Moreno's fourth-inning single brought home Nootbaar and made the score 7-2, ending any chance for a clean reset after the Padres' brief response.
The decisive blow arrived later against Kyle Hart. With the bases loaded in the sixth, Perdomo doubled to center, clearing the bases and pushing Arizona to 10 runs. Perdomo finished 2-for-3 with a triple, double, two walks, two runs and four RBIs. His production connected the top and middle of the lineup: reach base, advance traffic, then empty the bases when the chance returned.
Arenado scored the Diamondbacks' 11th run in the seventh as Lawlar grounded into a double play. San Diego got one back in the bottom half on Cronenworth's forceout and another in the eighth on a Sung-Mun Song single. Those runs changed the final margin, not the pressure of the game. Arizona had already built an eight-run cushion before the Padres' final two responses.
The line score contained an unusual split. San Diego collected 10 hits to Arizona's eight, and neither team committed an error. The Diamondbacks did more with their contact because three of their eight hits were home runs and Perdomo's two extra-base hits drove in four. They also drew enough walks to put runners in place for the sixth-inning double.
Brandon Pfaadt gave Arizona the innings its offense had earned. He worked 7 2/3, allowing four runs on nine hits and two walks while striking out seven. Ryne Nelson completed the eighth, and Zac Gallen retired San Diego in order in the ninth. The Padres never forced the Diamondbacks to spend their bullpen aggressively in a game already stretching toward the finish.
Cronenworth drove in two of San Diego's four runs. Song went 2-for-2 after entering, with a run and an RBI. Those contributions could not compensate for a start in which Arizona scored seven times before the Padres came to bat in the fourth. David Morgan and Wandy Peralta combined for three scoreless relief innings, but Hart allowed three runs and Jason Adam one.
San Diego fell to 89-71 while Arizona improved to 86-74. The Padres had secured a winning record long before Friday, yet the loss exposed the narrow path created by early pitching trouble. Ten hits can sustain an offense; they cannot erase a run allowed in every inning from the first through the fourth, followed by a bases-loaded double in the sixth.