Sanchez and Snell lead the Padres to a 5-3 win over the Rangers for a 3-game sweep

SAN DIEGO — Gary Sánchez homered twice, Juan Soto doubled in Fernando Tatis Jr. from first base and left-hander Blake Snell had one other robust begin for the San Diego Padres, who beat the struggling Texas Rangers 5-3 on Sunday for a three-game sweep.

Hours earlier, Texas introduced the acquisition of Max Scherzer from the New York Mets and obtained left-hander Jordan Montgomery from the St. Louis Cardinals. The AL West leaders then misplaced for the seventh time in 9 video games whereas conserving a one-game lead over the Houston Astros, who misplaced 8-2 to Tampa Bay.

“It’s behind us already,” Rangers supervisor Bruce Bochy mentioned. “We’re off tomorrow, regroup, see if we can get back on track and play our brand of ball. It was a tough series. We faced some really good pitching.”

Bochy mentioned the Rangers‘ batters expanded the strike zone “more than what we had been doing. Just shows you that we were maybe a little anxious, a little amped up. We’ve received to get again to who we’re.”

Josh Hader retired Josh Jung with the bases loaded within the ninth inning for his twenty fifth save in 29 possibilities.

Padres second baseman Ha-Seong Kim exited with a jammed proper shoulder after sliding headfirst into dwelling plate on Xander Bogaerts’ sacrifice fly within the third.

PHOTOS: Sanchez and Snell lead the Padres to a 5-3 win over the Rangers for a 3-game sweep

The disappointing Padres, who reached the NL Championship Series final season after which bulked up their payroll to about $250 million, should resolve by Tuesday’s commerce deadline whether or not they’ll be patrons or sellers. They got here into Sunday buried in fourth place within the NL West, 9 video games behind the division-leading Los Angeles Dodgers, and 5 1/2 video games out of the third wild-card spot.

The Padres‘ three-game profitable streak matches their season finest. It got here after two dismal losses to Pittsburgh, which on the time was final within the NL Central. It was simply their second three-game sweep of the season.

After the Pittsburgh collection, Tatis mentioned the Padres‘ play had been “terrible.” That all modified in three video games.

“It’s huge. I feel like we needed this a long time ago,” Tatis mentioned Sunday. “It was really good baseball this series – offense backing up pitching, pitching backing up offense – and hopefully we can keep this going.”

Snell (8-8), who has been talked about as a commerce risk, together with Hader, lowered his huge league-leading ERA to 2.50 by holding the Rangers to an unearned run and 4 hits in 5 innings. He struck out 9 and walked 4. The solely run he allowed got here on his throwing error within the fourth.

“It feels good,” Snell mentioned. “Texas is a really, really good team. Great offense. We knew that coming into it and knew we had to make our pitches this series and it went our way.”

As for the looming commerce deadline, “I don’t want to go anywhere,” Snell mentioned.

Sánchez homered main off the fourth in opposition to Jose Leclerc (0-2) for a 2-1 lead and linked once more with two outs within the fifth off Brock Burke for a 4-1 lead. He has 12 this season.

Tatis reached on a fielder’s selection within the fourth and scored on Soto‘s opposite-field double into the nook in left.

The Rangers pulled to 4-3 on Marcus Semien’s two-run single off Nick Martinez within the sixth.

Tatis hit an RBI single within the eighth.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Rangers: Placed RHP Nathan Eovaldi on the 15-day injured listing, retroactive to Thursday, with a proper forearm pressure and recalled right-hander Grant Anderson from Triple-A Round Rock.

Padres: Manager Bob Melvin mentioned it’s his guess Kim gained’t play Monday evening “but hopefully it’s not too long.”

UP NEXT

Rangers: Hadn’t introduced their starter for Tuesday evening’s opener of a three-game dwelling collection in opposition to the Chicago White Sox.

Padres: RHP Seth Lugo (4-5, 3.62 ERA) is scheduled to begin Monday evening within the opener of a collection at Colorado, which is able to counter with LHP Austin Gomber (8-8, 5.83).