SAN DIEGO — The soft-hitting San Diego Padres finally got a big hit. Then they scored the old-fashioned way.
Luke Voit fulfilled, at least momentarily, the promise the Padres would slug more than they had been and tied Friday night’s game with a three-run homer in the sixth inning.
A walk by Manny Machado and successive singles by Eric Hosmer and Wil Myers scored the game’s final run in the eighth, as the Padres came back to beat the Pirates 4-3 at sold-out Petco Park
Taylor Rogers worked a perfect ninth inning for his major league-leading 17th save, as the Padres came back from a deficit of more than two runs for just the second time this season.
Voit’s homer was the Padres’ first extra-base hit in three games and just the second ball they put in play Friday night at more than 97.1 mph.
The Padres got an assist earlier in the sixth inning when first baseman Josh VanMeter didn’t have his foot on first base on what would have been a groundout by Hosmer. That made Myers’ fly ball to right field the second out of the inning, and Voit followed with his first homer in 39 at-bats.
The Padres entered Friday having scored a total of five runs — and in just four different innings — in the first three games of this homestand. They had gone four games without a home run and were tied with the third-fewest homers (32) in the majors this season.
They got what is becoming the standard quality start from Sean Manaea, who allowed three runs in seven innings.
He yielded a solo homer in the first and two runs in the third on walks to consecutive batters and a two-run double by Diego Castillo.
The left-hander retired 11 of the final 13 batters he faced and earned his seventh quality start, the fourth in a row in which he allowed three earned runs. In the middle of that run was a six-inning outing in which he allowed four runs.
