Padres 9, Nationals 2: Merrill's Two Homers, Six RBI at 95 Degrees

A triple, two homers, and a single. No double.

September 9, 2026 - San Diego - Jackson Merrill tripled off the wall in the third. He homered the other way in the fourth. He homered to center in the seventh. He singled in the eighth. He never doubled.

The San Diego Padres beat the Washington Nationals 9-2 at Petco Park. Merrill went 4-for-5 with two homers, a triple, two runs, and six RBI. The Associated Press called it a career high in RBI and said he tied his career high with 24 homers. He is the third Padres player with a triple and two home runs in the same game. He fell a double short of the cycle on a day the first-pitch temperature was 95 degrees, the hottest in Petco Park history. The previous mark was 93 on Sept. 10, 2015, against Colorado.

San Diego swept the three-game series and has a four-game winning streak. The Padres are 78-68, in the same wild-card argument as Arizona. Washington is 67-81 and has lost seven in a row. Since July 27 the Nationals have the worst record in the majors at 13-29, per the AP recap.

Washington scored twice. San Diego answered with three.

Walker Buehler started and did not last. Two and a third innings, three hits, two runs, two walks, four strikeouts, 60 pitches. Keibert Ruiz hit his 10th homer to right in the third. 1-0. Nasim Nuñez reached. Jacob Young reached. James Wood reached. Dylan Crews singled, and Nuñez scored. 2-0. Buehler was already in traffic. Jackson Kent (1-4) had the lead for about five minutes.

San Diego's third started with Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado on. Ty France singled Tatis home. 2-1. Merrill tripled to right, deflected by Jacob Young, and Machado and France scored. 3-2. The inning that was supposed to belong to Washington belonged to a center fielder who was not done.

The fourth was small-ball until it wasn't. Austin Hays scored on Samad Taylor's bunt single and Kent's throwing error. Tatis singled Taylor home. 5-2. Kent was done after three innings: eight hits, five runs, one walk, two strikeouts, 72 pitches. Brad Lord inherited a 5-2 game and watched Merrill hit a two-run homer to left in the fifth, France scoring ahead of him. That was homer No. 23. 7-2.

Luis Perales got the seventh. Merrill hit a solo shot to center for No. 24. 8-2. In the eighth, with Xander Bogaerts aboard and France on second, Merrill singled through a deflection at first. 9-2. Four hits. Six RBI. Every ball in play except a double. The cycle stayed incomplete on purpose or by accident. Either way, the box score is greedy enough.

Tatis went 3-for-5 with a run and an RBI. France went 3-for-5 with a double, two runs, and an RBI. Hays went 2-for-2. Taylor went 2-for-4 with a double. San Diego had 16 hits. Washington had four. CJ Abrams struck out three times. Andrés Chaparro went 0-for-4. Daylen Lile went 0-for-4. The 2-0 lead was the whole offensive night except Ruiz's homer and Crews' single.

Hart cleaned up what Buehler started

Kyle Hart (1-3) got the win with 2 1/3 scoreless innings: no hits, one strikeout, 25 pitches. David Morgan recorded an out. Yuki Matsui threw a 1-2-3 sixth. Wandy Peralta worked two innings, one hit, two strikeouts. Griffin Canning finished the ninth. After Buehler's 60-pitch start, the bullpen threw 6 2/3 scoreless innings. That is how a day game in 95-degree heat becomes a sweep instead of a bullpen fire.

Attendance was 33,276. The game lasted 2 hours, 53 minutes. Partly cloudy, wind left to right at 5 mph. The heat was the story before first pitch. Merrill was the story after it.

Washington's slide is not a one-week problem. Seven straight losses. Thirteen wins in 42 games since late July. Kent is 1-4. The lineup put two on the board in the third and did not score again. Wood walked and singled. Crews had the RBI single and a walk. That was the threat.

San Diego is trying to hold a wild-card spot in September. A 9-2 sweep-clincher with 16 hits is the version of this club that still has a path. Merrill at 24 homers is the version of the center fielder they drafted. The missing double is a footnote. Six RBI is the line.

AthX Engine after the baseball

AthX Engine (our projection and scoring system) put Merrill at 20 hitting fantasy points, the top hitter total on Wednesday. Hart had 9.33 pitching FP for the relief win. San Diego finished with 19 team FP, tied for second on the slate. Washington finished at minus-6. A two-homer, six-RBI night in a 9-2 win is why the hitter board and the team board pointed at the same park.

Fantasy points measure the night under platform scoring rules. Share prices also move with traders through dynamic pricing. They are related. They are not the same number.

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*Sources: ESPN recap and box score, MLB.com Gameday wrap, MLB.com schedule, and AthX Engine scoring. Information only; not financial advice.*