Jake Cronenworth and Fernando Tatis Jr. homered Monday night while Manny Machado knocked in two runs as the San Diego Padres held off the Athletics 5-4 in Sacramento.
Michael King (2-0) earned the win, allowing eight hits and three runs over 5 2/3 innings while walking two and fanning two. Four relievers covered the final 10 outs, with Robert Suarez pitching the ninth for his fifth save in as many chances.
Luis Severino (0-2) absorbed the loss after permitting eight hits and five runs in seven innings. Severino walked none and fanned three but allowed six extra-base hits.
The long ball bit him at critical moments. After Machado blooped his first RBI double in front of center fielder JJ Bleday in the first, Severino missed with a slider over the middle of the plate to Cronenworth and he clubbed nearly 400 feet over the fence in right-center.
After giving up Machado’s second run-scoring double in the third, Severino got into a rhythm and kept San Diego off the board until hanging another slider to Tatis in the seventh. That one traveled an estimated 406 feet to left field, Tatis’ second homer of the year.
The Athletics fought back from their early 4-0 deficit. Tyler Soderstrom slugged the first of his two solo homers in the third to get them on the board. They came up with four hits in the fourth for two runs, getting an RBI double from Max Muncy and an infield single from Lawrence Butler that plated Jacob Wilson to make it 4-3.
Soderstrom sliced the lead to one run in the seventh when he drilled his second homer off reliever Jeremiah Estrada, giving him six on the season. The Athletics got the tying run aboard in the eighth on Wilson’s one-out single but Elias Diaz cut down pinch runner Max Schuemann trying to steal second.
Tatis, Machado and Luis Arraez each finished with two hits for the Padres. Soderstrom, Wilson and Muncy collected two apiece for the Athletics.
