CLEVELAND (AP) — Luis Rengifo and Gavin Sheets hit back-to-back home runs in the second inning, Casey Mize allowed three hits in six innings to pick up his first win in a San Diego uniform, and the Padres defeated the Cleveland Guardians 5-0 on Sunday.
Jase Bowen and Jake Cronenworth also went deep for the Padres, who hit at least four homers in a game for the sixth time this season.
San Diego — which took two of three in the weekend series — has gone
6-0-1 in its last seven series and is a major league best 17-5 since July 24.
José Ramírez had two hits for the Guardians, who have dropped their last five series and are 4-11 since July 31.
Mize (5-7), acquired from Detroit at the trade deadline, gave up three hits in his third Padres' start.
Cleveland starter Tanner Bibee (4-13) retired the first five hitters before Rengifo connected on an elevated sinker down the middle and drove it over the wall in center field. Five pitches later, Sheets drove a changeup just over the fence in right field.
It was the first time since last April that the Padres had hit back-to-back homers.
Bowen, who came into the game as a defensive replacement in the sixth inning, made diving catches in the sixth and seventh innings to take away hits from Cleveland's Angel Martínez and Nathaniel Lowe. He then extended San Diego's lead to four runs in the eighth with a shot to right.
Cronenworth went deep to right-center in the ninth.
Bibee gave up three runs in six innings. The Guardians had only three hits, none after the fourth inning.
The game started after a 3 hour, 11 minute rain delay.
Padres: Open a three-game series at the New York Mets. RHP Walker Buehler (7-5, 4.88 ERA) goes on Monday night.
Guardians: LHP Foster Griffin (13-4, 3.25 ERA) makes his third Cleveland start on Tuesday against the San Francisco Giants.
___
See AP’s full MLB coverage here
