SAN DIEGO — The Padres showed Sunday that winning doesn't require them to be all they think they can be.
It doesn't have to take a bunch of timely hits or big hits.
It does require a little bit of one or the other. It helps to get some of both.
The Padres took advantage of help from the opposing starter, got a bases-loaded double from Rougned Odor in the first inning and a two-run homer from Matt Carpenter in the third inning and went on to beat the Red Sox 7-0 at Petco Park.
Michael Wacha, the only Padres pitcher to win a game in more than two weeks, threw six scoreless innings as the Padres stopped their losing streak at four games and won for the third time in 14 games.
They led from the start.
With just one hit in the first inning, the Padres put together their first four-run inning of the season outside Mexico City's thin air.
It was Odor's two-out double, which cleared loaded bases, that made the inning what it was.
It was Red Sox pitcher Corey Kluber's fielding error and three walks that enabled the outburst.
After those four unearned runs, MLB's least-productive team with runners in scoring position did not get another hit in that situation and finished 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position.
But Carpenter's home run in the third inning, with Juan Soto on base, put the Padres up 6-0. And in the bottom of the sixth, Odor doubled again to drive in Ha-Seong Kim from first base after his single.
Sunday was just the ninth time in 47 games the Padres scored more than six runs. It was, in fact, just the 27th time they scored more than two runs.
Wacha could have made do with one of the many games in which the Padres scored a lot less. The right-hander extended his scoreless streak to 15 innings, the longest by a Padres pitcher this season. He has earned the win in all three of the Padres' victories over the past 14 games.
Tom Cosgrove worked the seventh, Nick Martinez the eighth and closer Josh Hader, who had pitched once in the previous 10 days, the ninth.
