SAN DIEGO (AP) — Emmanuel Rivera tied his career high with four RBIs on a pair of two-out singles and Tyler Wells won his season debut for the Baltimore Orioles, who beat San Diego 6-2 on Tuesday night to keep the scuffling Padres from gaining on the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers.
Jeremiah Johnson homered for the second consecutive night and drove in two runs for the Orioles. Baltimore, last in the AL East, has won two straight against the Padres and will go for a series sweep on Wednesday.
San Diego, which has lost three in a row and seven of nine, remained 2 1/2 games behind Los Angeles, which lost 9-7 at Pittsburgh. The Padres are a game ahead of the New York Mets for the second of three National League wild cards.
Wells (1-0) pitched five innings in his first start since April 12, 2024. He had right elbow UCL surgery a month later. Wells allowed two runs and five hits, struck out four and walked none.
Rivera hit a two-run single off Yu Darvish (3-5) over the head of shortstop Mason McCoy with two outs in the third to give the Orioles a 3-0 lead. Ryan Mountcastle and Colton Cowser were aboard on consecutive one-out singles.
With two outs and the bases loaded in the fifth, Rivera greeted David Morgan with a single to center field that brought in Gunnar Henderson and Mountcastle to make it 5-2.
Jackson homered to left with one out in the first, his fourth. Jackson, who made his big league debut on Aug. 1, also homered in a win Monday.
Wells’ only big mistake was allowing Luis Arraez’s two-run homer with two outs in the third, his seventh. Freddy Fermin was aboard on a double.
Baltimore reliever Rico Garcia came on with the bases loaded and one out in the seventh and got two outs.
Arraez went 144 plate appearances and 32 games between home runs.
Baltimore’s Cade Povich (2-7, 5.04 ERA) and San Diego’s Nestor Cortes (1-2, 3.75) are scheduled to start the series finale Wednesday.
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