Tatis and Soto home runs push Padres for a 7-3 win over Giants

Fernando Tatis and Juan Soto hit consecutive home runs in the first inning for San Diego Padres’ 7-3 win over San Francisco on Friday night.

This drops the Giants into a tie with Arizona for the final NL wild card and the battle for it promises to be epic. The Giants had won four of five coming in, including 7-2 in the opener of this series Thursday night.

Michael Wacha held the Giants to two runs and six hits in six innings and the Padres bounced back from a very disappointing performance on Thursday night to win for just the second time in eight games.

Michael Wacha’s six strikeouts

Michael Wacha dishes six strikeouts in six innings pitched in a start vs. Giants

Giants @ Padres#BringTheGold | September 1, 2023 pic.twitter.com/TEHJWnLaTC

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— San Diego Strong (@PadresStrong) September 2, 2023

The Padres entered the game 8 1/2 games out of the last wild-card spot and a season-high 11 games under .500. They’ve been a huge disappointment after reaching the NL Championship Series last fall and even increasing their salary budget up to about $250 million, the third-highest in the majors. Despite all that, they’ve been under .500 since May 12.