SAN DIEGO (AP) — Kyle Hart earned his first big league win, Gavin Sheets had a pair of two-run doubles among his three hits and the San Diego Padres beat the Cleveland Guardians 7-2 Monday night to start 5-0 for the first time in their 57-season history.
The Padres’ previous best start was 4-0 in 1984, when they went to their first World Series.
Hart (1-0) returned to the big leagues five seasons after his only other stint, when he made four appearances and three starts for Boston during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, going 0-1 with a 15.55 ERA. He spent 2024 with the NC Dinos, where he led the Korean Baseball Organization with 182 strikeouts and won the Choi Dong-won Award as its top starter.
The 32-year-old left-hander allowed two runs and five hits in five innings, including home runs by José Ramírez with one out in the first and Austin Hedges leading off the third. They were the first for both players. Hart struck out four and walked one.
The Padres roughed up Luis Ortiz (0-1) in his Guardians debut after he was obtained in an offseason trade with Pittsburgh. He allowed seven runs and nine hits in 4 2/3 innings.
Sheets hit a two-run double in both the four-run second and three-run fifth. Jason Heyward drove in runs with a sacrifice fly in the second and a double in the fifth.
Key moment
Hart got his first big league strikeout in five seasons, fanning Guardians leadoff batter Steven Kwan on an 80-mph sweeper. Ramírez homered in the next at-bat, but Hart came back and struck out Lane Thomas.
Key stat
Reigning NL batting champ Luis Arraez of the Padres snapped a season-opening, 0-for-16 slump with a single in the sixth, but was thrown out by right fielder Jhonkensy Noel trying to stretch it into a double.
Up next
Guardians LHP Logan Allen and Padres RHP Michael King are scheduled to start Tuesday.
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