ATLANTA — What happened Sunday night was precisely what the Padres needed to happen.
With closer Josh Hader and setup man Luis Garcia not available because they had pitched the previous two days, the Padres went into their game against the Braves hoping Seth Lugo could replicate what he did in his first start and the offense could provide a cushion for the later innings.
The offense did its part and then some by scoring in every inning from the second through the sixth. Lugo held up his end as well, surrendering a lone run in six innings.
The Padres departed Truist Park for the airport and a flight to New York after routing the Braves 10-2 on national television for their third straight victory after dropping Thursday’s series opener on a walk-off single.
Nelson Cruz drove in six runs. He hit one of the Padres’ three home runs and had three of their 13 hits. Ha-Seong Kim homered and doubled. Trent Grisham had the other home run.
Lugo, who was almost preternaturally sharp in his first start with the Padres, was simply a veteran getting the job done in his second. He did not come anywhere close to matching his 88 percent first-pitch strike rate, and his four walks were four more than he issued on April 2. But he navigated those and five hits to give the Padres 109 pitches and require just three innings from a bullpen that has been
Lugo departed with the Padres up 10-1.
It got briefly uncomfortable, especially considering the shape of the Padres’ bullpen. Domingo Tapia allowed a run and had the bases loaded with one out in the seventh. But as Tim Hill warmed up, Tapia ended the inning on a strikeout and groundout.
Nabil Crismatt worked a scoreless eighth and ninth.
The Padres scored in double digits for the first time this season, and among their season-high 13 hits were a season-high seven for extra bases.
Their hitters certainly got cooperation from young left-hander Dylan Dodd. The Braves’ sixth-ranked prospect was making his second career start, and he lost for the first time. He departed with one out in the fifth and the Braves down 6-0 after he made a habit of leaving sliders up in the zone that were smacked to all parts of the ballpark, mostly off the wall outfield and over it.
Doubles off the wall on back-to-back pitches — to right-center field by Jake Cronenworth and to left-center by Kim — gave the Padres a 1-0 lead in the second inning.
It was 4-0 after Xander Bogaerts and Manny Machado began the third inning with singles. Cruz then rocketed his second home run of the season a projected 432 feet to left field with one out.
It was 5-0 after one pitch in the fourth, as Grisham hit a fastball a projected 424 feet to right-center field.
Successive doubles again to start the fifth, off the wall in right-center by Juan Soto and a ground rule double down the left field line by Cruz, made it 6-0.
Dodd was pulled after striking out Jake Cronenworth on 11 pitches for the first out of the inning.
Left-hander Lucas Luetge, who on Thursday was greeted by a Cronenworth home run, entered the game and watched as Kim sent a pitch just over the reach of a leaping Eddie Rosario and into the Padres’ bullpen to give the Padres a homer for a third straight inning and an 8-0 lead.
The bases were loaded when Cruz came to bat in the sixth, and he lined the second pitch he saw over the shortstop to make it 10-1.
