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 Padres from gaining on the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers.
Jeremiah Johnson homered for the second straight night for the Orioles and drove in two runs. Baltimore, last in the AL East, have won two straight against the Padres and will go for a sweep on Wednesday. The Padres remained 2 1/2 games behind Los Angeles, which lost 9-7 at Pittsburgh.
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 over the head of shortstop Mason McCoy with two outs in the third off Yu Darvish (3-5) 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 to bring 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 on 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’s Rico Garcia came on with the bases loaded and one out in the seventh and got two outs.
Arraez went a span of 144 plate appearances and 32 games between home runs.
Baltimore’s Cade Povich (2-7, 5.04 ERA) and Nestor Cortes (1-2, 3.75) are scheduled to start the series finale on Wednesday.
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