These two weeks in which the Padres are playing only the Giants and Dodgers have provided some mood swings.

The Padres moved into first place in the National League West with a sweep in San Francisco last week and fell back into second place when they were swept in Los Angeles over the weekend.

They came home and fell to the Giants on Monday, their fourth loss in a row after a surge of 14 victories in 17 games had put them atop the division later than June for the first time in 15 years.

Things change quickly when games are played almost every day.

There the Padres were two nights later, getting two home runs from Gavin Sheets and one apiece from Manny Machado and Ryan O’Hearn and beating the Giants 8-1 on Wednesday for their second straight victory.

And with the Dodgers losing in Colorado, the Padres returned to within a game of first place, two days before the teams begin a three-game series at Petco Park.

“Last weekend didn’t go our way and the first game in the homestand,” Fernando Tatis Jr. said. “But we’re right there, we’re close, we’re really close, and we’re just not gonna back down that way. We’re just gonna show up and play our best baseball that we can.”

The Padres are back on the upswing after scoring in each of the first three innings to take a 6-0 lead.

That left JP Sears to simply make sure he did not implode in his second start for the Padres.

The left-hander surrendered a home run to Eastlake High School and San Diego State alumnus Casey Schmitt in the fourth inning but otherwise spread out three more hits and a walk over six innings before Wandy Peralta, Yuki Matsui and David Morgan finished the game.

Giants starting pitcher Landen Roupp departed in the third inning, though not because of the three runs the Padres had scored by that time.

Roupp was carted off the field after spraining his left knee trying to maintain his balance after being hit on the backside by a Ramón Laureano line drive.

Laureano’s single put runners at first and second for reliever Joey Lucchesi.

The former Padres left-hander promptly surrendered Sheets’ second home of the game, which put the Padres up 6-0.

The Giants were scoreless to that point because right fielder Tatis had leaped at the wall to bring back a would-be home run by Rafael Devers in the first inning.

“You’re talking about right off the giddy again,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “Sometimes that’s what it takes to eliminate a little streak that you don’t like is a great play or something out of the ordinary.”

Had Tatis not made the catch, it would have been the fifth straight game in which the Padres’ starting pitcher allowed at least one run and the fourth straight in which that included at least one homer.

Tatis led off the bottom of the first by ripping the second pitch he saw from Roupp inside the bag and down the left field line for a double.

It seemed the inning might end quickly and disappointingly when Luis Arraez and Machado made the first two outs in three pitches and O’Hearn fell behind 0-2.

But O’Hearn worked a full count before lining the 10th pitch he saw into center field to score Tatis.

Sears was working on his own quick inning in the second, retiring the first two batters on three pitches before a pair of two-out singles and a walk loaded the bases. He then got No.9 batter Patrick Bailey on a pop-up on the first pitch.

Sheets led off the bottom of the second by lining his career-high 16th home run of the season into the seats beyond right field just inside the foul pole.

With one out in the third inning, Machado hit his first home run since July 29.

O’Hearn followed by drawing a walk before Laureano’s single and Sheets’ home run, which went to just about the same place as his first.

O’Hearn added a home run in the seventh inning off Tristan Beck, and a double by Freddy Fermin and single by Tatis made it 8-1 in the eighth.

The Padres finished with 10 hits, their 11th time with at least that many in the past 25 games. Wednesday was the eighth time in that span they scored at least seven runs. In their previous 64 games, they reached double digits in hits 15 times and scored at least seven runs just seven times.

“We win a lot of games in a lot of different ways,” Shildt said. “We’ve won a lot of our games with our pitching and defense and the timely hitting, which is a great recipe. But I feel like our offense is dictating games in the last couple of weeks to three weeks, and it was on display tonight.”

Originally Published: August 20, 2025 at 9:26 PM PDT