Nationals 10, Padres 5
SAN DIEGO -- Danny Espinosa and Bryce Harper clubbed three-run homers Sunday as the Washington Nationals routed the San Diego Padres 10-5 at Petco Park to record their third straight victory.
Second baseman Espinosa's fifth homer of the season in the fifth erased a 2-0 Padres lead and put the Nationals ahead to stay.
Right fielder Harper went 3-for-3 and fell a double shy of the cycle while driving in four runs and scoring three. The home run was Harper's National League-leading 14th of the season.
Left fielder Tyler Moore also had a two-run double for the Nationals, who scored three runs in the fifth, four in the sixth and three in the seventh while winning for the fifth time in seven games on a trip to Arizona and San Diego.
Right-handed starter Stephen Strasburg (3-4), a San Diego native and product of San Diego State, picked up the win for the Nationals, allowing three runs on five hits and a walk with seven strikeouts in five-plus innings.
The lone bright note for the Padres was a pair of homers by Justin Upton, giving the left fielder 10 on the season. It was Upton's second multi-homer game of the season and the ninth of his career.
Right-hander Ian Kennedy (2-3) allowed six runs on three hits and four walks in five-plus innings to get tagged with the Padres fifth loss in the last seven games.
The Nationals turned the game around on one swing by Espinosa in the fifth after Kennedy nearly worked his way out of a hole. Washington then blew the game open in the sixth and seventh.
Kennedy had not allowed a hit and faced the minimum 12 Nationals hitters with six strikeouts through the first four innings.
But Harper opened the fifth with a triple off the wall in right, although he had to hold at third when Padres third baseman Cory Spangenberg made a diving stop of a single by Nationals first baseman Ryan Zimmerman over the third base bag.
With runners at first and third with no one out, Kennedy retired Moore and catcher Jose Lobaton on back-to-back infield pop flies, bringing up Espinosa.
After taking strike one, Espinosa pulled Kennedy's next offering 383 feet into the right-field seats to erase the Padres' 2-0 lead.
Kennedy opened the sixth by walking the only three hitters he faced and was replaced by left-hander Frank Garces, who entered the game to face Harper with no one out and the bases loaded.
After nearly throwing a breaking ball past Harper for a called third strike (plate umpire Phil Cuzzi called it a ball), Garces got Harper to hit a half-swing roller toward third that ground to a halt for a run-scoring infield single to make it 4-2.
Zimmerman greeted right-handed reliever Dale Thayer with a sacrifice fly to left, and Moore shot a double inside the third-base bag to make it 7-2.
Kennedy has allowed 11 runs on 11 hits (including three home runs) and seven walks in 9 2/3 innings over his last two starts.
The Padres had used speed and power to forge a 2-0 lead.
Center fielder Abraham Almonte was struck out by Strasburg with one out in the first, but reached on a wild pitch. He stole second and was running to steal third when right fielder Matt Kemp grounded an infield single behind second. Almonte never stopped running and scored. Upton made it 2-0 with his homer off Strasburg in the third.
NOTES: The Padres said OF Melvin Upton Jr. would treat his rehab assignment with Triple-A El Paso as spring training. Melvin Upton will get at least 50 at-bats with the Chihuahuas before he is activated from the disabled list . . .CF/1B Wil Myers took batting practice in the batting cage Sunday and is expected to return to action Tuesday . . . Nationals RF Bryce Harper drew a walk in his first at-bat Sunday. He has drawn at least one walk in each of his last seven games and has walked in 27 of the Nationals' first 39 games. He led the major leagues with 35 walks heading into Sunday's action . . . LF Jayson Werth is scheduled to have an MRI on his left wrist Monday after the Nationals return to Washington, D.C. Werth hasn't played since being hit by a pitch Friday.