Padres mix up lineup, light up scoreboard in victory over Giants

Kevin Acee, The San Diego Union-Tribune on May 6, 2026

Published in Baseball

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SAN FRANCISCO — The scuffling Padres came to the Bay Area this week to play the skidding Giants.

Their hosts had just returned from a road trip in which they lost all six games they played, and they made a bunch of roster moves on Monday to try to shake up their last-place club.

It worked for the Giants, who won the series opener.

Before Tuesday’s game, having lost five of their previous six games, the Padres made a shake-up of their own.

Whether it was the actual impetus for them executing much better at-bats on a consistent basis, it resulted in the Padres scoring more runs and getting more hits than they had in more than a week, beating the Giants 10-5 at Oracle Park.

Manager Craig Stammen moved struggling Fernando Tatis Jr. down in the order — from second to fifth, the erstwhile slugger’s first time lower than fourth since the 18th game of his career in 2019.

That created a cavalcade of switches that had several players batting in spots they had either not been in or had been just once.

“Just trying to switch it up a little bit, the whole entire lineup,” Stammen said. “I think just shaking things up, putting people in different situations, different order, maybe it’ll turn their brains on a little bit, and we’ll ignite the offense.”

Tuesday was also the first start of Sung-Mun Song’s career, as he was called up to replace Jake Cronenworth, who was placed on the concussion injured list.

Song played second base and in his second at-bat drove a double to the gap in left-center field to drive in two runs and give the Padres a 5-4 lead in the fourth inning.

He ended up scoring the Padres’ fifth run that inning on a single by Jackson Merrill, the Padres’ fifth hit of the inning and one of 14 they got Tuesday.

They had three hits on Monday, two by Merrill, and were batting .177 over their previous six games. Their batting average and on-base percentage were both ranked in the bottom five among MLB’s 30 teams, and their slugging percentage was 24th.

Manny Machado was the only Padres batter to not reach base and the only one to not score a run Tuesday, as they came back from a 4-1 deficit while starting pitcher Walker Buehler recovered from allowing four runs in the first two innings to pitch into the sixth without further damage.

Casey Schmitt, an Eastlake High School graduate who played at San Diego State, followed Jung Hoo Lee’s leadoff single by hitting a first-inning home run for the second consecutive night to put the Giants up 2-0 before Buehler recorded his first out.

Xander Bogaerts’ team-leading sixth homer of the season got the Padres to 2-1 in the second before Buehler was victimized by three soft hits and a groundout for two more runs in the second.

Beginning with the second out of the second inning, Buehler retired 11 consecutive batters.

A leadoff single by Rafael Devers in the sixth inning ended that run, and a one-out single by Bryce Eldridge ended Buehler’s night.

Jeremiah Estrada stranded those runners in the sixth before allowing a home run by Jesus Rodriguez in the seventh. Jason Adam worked a 1-2-3 eighth inning before Ron Marinaccio did the same in the ninth.

The Padres were rid of Giants starter Logan Webb after their outburst in the fourth inning.

The five runs matched their season high in an inning and was followed by them scoring once in the fifth, once in the sixth and twice in the eighth.