Geraldo Perdomo’s four-RBI night powers Diamondbacks past Padres 11-4 at Petco Park

The game tilted before San Diego settled in

Arizona did not need long to seize control. Lars Nootbaar opened the scoring with a first-inning homer to right-center, then the Diamondbacks kept the inning moving: Gabriel Moreno scored on Geraldo Perdomo’s triple, and Corbin Carroll’s sacrifice fly made it 3-0. San Diego answered with two runs in the second on Luis Campusano’s groundout and Jake Cronenworth’s single, but Arizona immediately restored distance. Jordan Lawlar homered in the second, and Nolan Arenado added a two-run shot in the third for a 6-2 lead that framed the rest of the night.

That early burst landed directly on Casey Mize’s line. The Padres right-hander lasted 4.0 innings, allowing seven runs on seven hits, with three home runs against him. Arizona’s broader offensive profile made that even tougher to contain. The Diamondbacks struck out only four times all night, drew eight walks, were hit by two pitches and pushed San Diego’s staff to 165 pitches. It was power, but it was also accumulation; Arizona kept finding another plate appearance, another baserunner, another reason the game stayed tilted their way.

Perdomo kept showing up in the big innings

Perdomo authored the most complete box line of the night and, more importantly, the most consequential swings. He finished 2-for-3 with four RBIs, two runs, a triple and a double, plus two walks. His biggest blow came in the sixth, when he doubled to center and cleared the bases, scoring Moreno, Nootbaar and Ketel Marte to stretch the game from 7-2 to 10-2. That inning said a lot about Arizona’s attack: Marte went hitless, yet still scored because the Diamondbacks kept forcing traffic ahead of their run producers.

Moreno and Nootbaar were central to that traffic all evening. Moreno reached three times and scored twice; Nootbaar scored three runs and started the game with the home run that gave Arizona its first jolt. Arenado and Lawlar supplied the other long balls, and even a seventh-inning double-play grounder still brought home another run. Eleven runs on eight hits is not a conventional shape for a rout, but Arizona created that shape by stacking damage on top of free baserunners. Even on a night that good, there is a small note for improvement: the Diamondbacks still left 11 men on base, evidence that the score could have swelled even further.

San Diego had traffic, not enough damage

The Padres were not absent offensively. Fernando Tatis Jr. had two hits, Xander Bogaerts had two more, Sung-Mun Song went 2-for-2 with an RBI, and San Diego collected 10 hits overall. The problem was what those hits became. The Padres produced only one extra-base hit, a double, and never hit a ball out of the park. Their scoring came in pieces rather than in one forceful turn: two runs in the second, one on Cronenworth’s fielder’s choice in the seventh, and one on Song’s single in the eighth. For a team with that many baserunners, four runs was a light return.

Arizona’s pitching deserves part of the credit for that imbalance. Brandon Pfaadt was hardly untouchable, but 7.2 innings of four-run work on 106 pitches gave the Diamondbacks exactly what an offense like this needed: length and enough control of the damage. He allowed nine hits and two walks, yet San Diego never turned the contact into a truly destabilizing inning. Ryne Nelson recorded the final out of the eighth, and Zac Gallen handled the ninth. The larger number on San Diego’s side was 15 runners left on base, and that is usually where these games are decided.

Our take: one lineup made its chances expensive

Our take: this score captured two different offensive truths at once. Arizona was not a hit machine; it was an opportunity machine. Eight hits, eight walks, two hit batters and three home runs created an avalanche because the Diamondbacks made nearly every opening costly. San Diego, by contrast, hit .294 for the game and still lost by seven because most of that contact stayed small. Ten hits with one double, no home runs, 15 left on base and two ground-ball double plays is a recipe for frustration no matter how often a runner reaches.

If San Diego is looking for the clearest repair, it starts with limiting the free traffic on the mound and doing more with its own. Eight walks, two hit batters and three homers allowed put too much strain on every inning, and the Padres’ hitters did not answer with enough extra-base impact to recover. Arizona leaves with the more flattering result, but not a perfect one: Pfaadt and company still gave up 10 hits, and the offense stranded 11. On this night, though, the Diamondbacks were the team that made the next mistake hurt, and that is why an 11-4 game felt settled well before the final out.

Scoring moments

1. 1st Inning

   Nootbaar homered to right center (403 feet).

2. 1st Inning

   Perdomo tripled to right, Moreno scored.

3. 1st Inning

   Carroll hit sacrifice fly to right, Perdomo scored.

4. 2nd Inning

   Lawlar homered to right (334 feet).

5. 2nd Inning

   Campusano grounded out to second, Merrill scored, Bogaerts to second.

6. 2nd Inning

   Cronenworth singled to center, Bogaerts scored.

7. 3rd Inning

   Arenado homered to left (385 feet), Perdomo scored.

8. 4th Inning

   Moreno singled to right, Nootbaar scored.

9. 6th Inning

   Perdomo doubled to center, Moreno scored, Nootbaar scored and Marte scored.

10. 7th Inning

    Lawlar grounded into double play, shortstop to second to first, Arenado scored, Fernandez out at second, Tawa to third.

11. 7th Inning

    Cronenworth grounded into fielder's choice to shortstop, Song scored, Campusano out at second.

12. 8th Inning

    Song singled to center, Harris scored, France to third.