Jackson Merrill turned a two-run deficit into the beginning of a rout Wednesday, driving in six runs on four hits as the Padres beat Washington 9-2 and swept the three-game series at Petco Park. Merrill tripled home two runs in the third inning, then added two-run homers in the fifth and seventh.
Washington moved ahead in the third on Keibert Ruiz's solo homer and Dylan Crews' run-scoring single. San Diego answered in the bottom half. Ty France singled in one run before Merrill's triple put the Padres in front 3-2, a lead they expanded in each of the next two innings.
The fourth brought two more runs, one when Austin Hays scored on an error and another on Fernando Tatis Jr.'s RBI single. Merrill then drove a Brad Lord fastball to left field in the fifth. His second homer, a 411-foot drive to center off Victor Perales, made it 8-2 in the seventh. Merrill's four-hit performance included his 23rd and 24th home runs of the season. MLB's game recap credited him with a season-high six RBIs. The sequence mattered beyond the individual line: San Diego produced 16 hits and scored in five consecutive innings after being held off the board through the first two.
Walker Buehler struck out the side in the opening inning but left with two outs in the third after Washington's two runs. Kyle Hart followed with 2 1/3 scoreless innings and received the win. Four more Padres relievers each supplied a scoreless inning, limiting the Nationals to four hits for the afternoon.
The Padres finished the six-game homestand 5-1 and improved to 78-68. Their victory pulled them level with Arizona for the National League's final Wild Card place at the time San Diego's game ended; the Diamondbacks still had a later result pending when MLB published its initial recap.
That timing makes the standings a moving target, but the game itself changed San Diego's margin for error. The Padres began Wednesday with 16 regular-season games remaining. They have no more head-to-head meetings with Arizona until the clubs close the regular season against each other at Petco Park.
The first-pitch temperature was 95 degrees, which MLB reported as the hottest game in Petco Park history. San Diego did not let the conditions or the early deficit slow its offense. Six Padres recorded multiple hits, and the lineup went 6-for-14 with runners in scoring position.
Merrill accounted for the game's three largest swings. His triple converted France's hit into the lead, his first homer stretched a three-run advantage to five and his second removed any realistic comeback path. That progression kept Washington from turning Buehler's early exit into leverage and allowed San Diego to finish the afternoon without using any reliever for more than one inning after Hart.
A three-game trip to San Francisco comes next, beginning Friday night. The sweep gives the Padres momentum and a day off before that series, but it does not settle the Wild Card chase. Merrill's surge supplied the separation Wednesday; the remaining schedule will determine whether it becomes a postseason turning point.