SAN DIEGO (AP) — Ty France homered and JP Sears won his season debut for the San Diego Padres, who beat the NL East-leading Atlanta Braves 5-2 on Wednesday night for a three-game sweep.
The Padres have won five of seven heading into a home weekend series against the NL-West leading Los Angeles Dodgers. The Padres lost two of three when the Dodgers visited in mid-May. The Dodgers lead the Padres by nine games.
France homered to left off Martín Pérez
leading off the third, his ninth. He hit a sacrifice fly in the fourth and doubled leading off the sixth, scoring on Samad Taylor's two-run single.
Pérez (6-4), who pitched for the Padres part of 2024, saw his streak of four straight wins ends. He allowed three runs and four hits in four innings, struck out four and walked four.
Sears (1-0) was cruising with a four-hitter before allowing Joey Bart's two-run home run with two outs in the sixth. It was his third and came with Austin Riley aboard on a walk.
Sears allowed two runs and five hits in 5 2/3 innings, struck out five and walked two. He was recalled from Triple-A El Paso on Tuesday after right-hander Lucas Giolito went on the injured list. Sears was obtained from the Athletics along with Mason Miller in one of San Diego's five trade deadline deals on July 31.
Jason Adam pitched the ninth for his second save.
Xander Bogaerts hit an RBI single in the fifth, when the Padres stole three bases.
Braves RHP Reynaldo López (3-1, 3.50 ERA) was scheduled to start Friday night in the opener of a series at San Francisco. Padres RHP Walker Buehler (4-3, 3.96) was set to start Friday night at home against his original team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, who were set to start RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto (7-5, 2.65).
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