SAN DIEGO — The Padres stayed hot.
On an oppressively muggy afternoon — the hottest game day ever at Petco Park — they beat the Nationals 9-2 on Wednesday to finish off a series that they needed to be every bit as sizzling as it was.
In taking 2 of 3 from the New York Yankees and sweeping the Nationals, the Padres followed a 1-5 road trip with a 5-1 homestand.
The victory temporarily moved them into a tie for the final National League playoff spot pending the outcome of Wednesday evening’s game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and Kansas City Royals. The Padres or Diamondbacks will have a half-game lead by day’s end.
It was 95 degrees with 40% humidity at first pitch in downtown San Diego, but the afternoon was otherwise highly enjoyable for the Padres.
Jackson Merrill drove in a career-high six runs with a pair of homers, a triple and a single. Fernando Tatis Jr. and Ty France added three hits apiece.
And the Padres bullpen worked 6 1/3 scoreless innings after starter Walker Buehler was pulled with the bases loaded and one out in the third inning.
Even as they had won recently, the Padres struggled to score in the homestand’s first five games, topping three runs just once and winning all four games by one run.
They particularly struggled for large portions of the first two games against one of the major leagues’ worst pitching staffs.
Monday, they scored three runs in the first three innings and held on for a 3-2 victory. Tuesday, they struggled for much of the game against inexperienced pitchers before scoring four runs in the eighth inning and winning 5-4.
They had no such problem against rookie left-hander Jackson Kent (1-3, 6.59) and the three relievers that followed on Wednesday.
But before the Padres broke out, Kyle Hart kept them from being buried.
Buehler struck out the first four batters he faced and retired the next two to get through two perfect innings.
But his second pitch in the third inning was hit over the right-field wall by Keibert Ruiz. A walk, a single and a walk followed. Then came an RBI single by Dylan Crews, though the line drive to right field would have been a sacrifice fly and the first out had Jase Bowen not tripped over his feet moving toward the ball.
After Buehler got the first out, Craig Stammen went to the mound and Hart took over.
The left-hander struck out cleanup batter CJ Abrams and ended the inning with a fly ball out to leave the bases loaded.
Hart went on to work a 1-2-3 fourth inning and retire the first two batters in the fifth before giving way to David Morgan with the Padres up by three runs.
The Padres broke through against Kent in the bottom of the third and had him out of his sixth career start before an out was made in the bottom of the fourth.
Tatis’ infield single with one out began the Padres’ three-run third inning, and all three runs scored with two outs.
Ty France followed Manny Machado’s walk with a ball grounded through the left side that scored Tatis, and Merrill launched a fly ball to the gap in right-center that bounced off center fielder Jacob Young’s glove as he crashed into the wall, giving Merrill a two-run triple.
The last throw Kent made was one that rolled into right field after he picked up Samad Taylor’s bunt. The error allowed Austin Hays, who had singled to lead off the fourth, to race around the bases and score.
Brad Lord replaced Kent, and gave up another run when Tatis’ third single of the day drove in Taylor to make it 5-3.
Yuki Matsui took over at the start of the sixth inning with a five-run lead following Merrill’s two-run homer in the fifth made it 7-2,.
Wandy Peralta followed Matsui’s 1-2-3 sixth by retiring the side in order in the seventh inning. And after Merrill hit his second homer in the bottom of the seventh, Peralta allowed just a single while getting through the eighth before Griffin Canning finished it off with a perfect ninth.
But that was after Merrill added his sixth RBI when his sharp ground ball got past first baseman Andrés Chaparro to bring in Xander Bogaerts from second base for the game’s final run.