Zac Gallen continued his mastery of San Diego and former Padre Tommy Pham hit a decisive two-run homer Thursday night as the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks secured a 3-1 victory in the opener of a four-game series.
Gallen held the Padres to one run on three hits and a walk with three strikeouts over 6 1/3 innings to beat the Padres for the third time this season to improve to 13-5. But the Padres did snap their 18-inning scoreless streak against Gallen and hit seven balls at over 100 mph with 11 of the 19 outs recorded by Gallen coming on drives to the outfield.
Rookie Justin Martinez, who was just recalled from Triple-A Reno, threw a split-finger fastball past Jake Cronenworth for a called third strike to end the game with the tying runs on to record his first major league save. Relievers Kyle Nelson and Martinez had six strikeouts over the final 2 2/3 innings.
The victory was the Diamondbacks' third straight over the Padres and their fifth in the last six games after coming off a nine-game losing streak. Each team had only three hits.
Padres starter Rich Hill retired the first 10 hitters he faced before walking Corbin Carroll with one out in the fourth.
Pham followed with his 12th homer of the season, driving a first-pitch fastball 430 feet to center into the Arizona bullpen. It was the fifth homer for Pham — and RBIs Nos. 10 and 11 — in 15 games against the Padres since he left San Diego before the 2022 season.
Catcher Gabriel Moreno made it 3-0 when he homered on Hill's first pitch of the fifth inning — his high, 328-foot, opposite-field fly ball landing just inside the right-field foul pole in the short porch at Petco Park.
The Padres got on the board in the bottom of the fifth. Cronenworth opened the inning with a double that bounced out of the glove of center fielder Alek Thomas as he and Pham converged in left-center. Trent Grisham drove in Cronenworth with a two-out single to right.
Hill gave up three runs on the two home runs and a walk with three strikeouts to fall to 7-13 overall and 0-3 with the Padres. Pedro Avila relieved Hill and allowed one hit and a walk with four strikeouts in four scoreless innings.
—Field Level Media.