Nick Pivetta needed 63 pitches to put five zeroes on the board. Returning from the injured list Monday, the right-hander allowed two hits, walked none and struck out two as the Padres beat the Washington Nationals 3-2 at Petco Park.
San Diego built the entire margin before Pivetta left. Jackson Merrill singled home Manny Machado in the first inning, then the Padres added two runs in the third. Machado drove in Fernando Tatis Jr. with a single, and Merrill followed with another hit that brought Machado around. The sequence gave Pivetta a 3-0 lead and Washington no opening against him.
Pivetta threw 38 of his 63 pitches for strikes. Washington managed singles by CJ Abrams in the first and Luis García Jr. in the fourth, but neither inning developed. The absence of a walk mattered as much as the modest strikeout total: Pivetta made the Nationals earn every baserunner and never supplied the extra traffic that turns one hit into a rally.
The lineup gave him clean support at the top. Tatis went 3-for-4 and scored once. Machado finished 2-for-4 with two runs and an RBI. Merrill went 3-for-4 and drove in two. Those three accounted for eight of San Diego's nine hits, concentrating the offense rather than spreading it across the order.
Washington finally broke through against Kyle Hart in the sixth. Dylan Crews hit a two-run homer after Andy Ortiz reached, cutting the lead to one. The game changed shape in a swing: a controlled afternoon became a bullpen test with 12 outs still required.
Adrian Morejon handled the seventh, and Jeremiah Estrada worked the eighth without allowing a run. Mason Miller took the ninth. He allowed one hit, struck out two and finished the save on 15 pitches. It was his 34th save, preserving Pivetta's second win and keeping the comeback from advancing beyond Crews' homer.
The Padres did not add insurance after the third. Xander Bogaerts had a hit and a walk, but the bottom half of the order produced little against Washington's staff. That left the pitching plan no margin for another mistake. Four relievers combined to cover the final four innings, with Hart charged for both Nationals runs and the other three keeping the lead intact.
San Diego improved to 76-68, while Washington fell to 67-79. The standings value is straightforward this late in the season, but Pivetta's workload is the more durable question now. Five innings and 63 pitches were enough for the result; they do not yet establish how far he can carry a start after the injured-list interruption. That evaluation comes next.
For one afternoon, the return was exact. Pivetta attacked the zone, the Padres' first three hitters produced the runs, and the back end of the bullpen held a 3-2 edge. No late surge was necessary. No extra cushion arrived. San Diego won with the lead it built while its returning starter was still on the mound, then asked three late relievers to defend it without a run of error.