SEATTLE–Yu Darvish limited Seattle to two hits over eight innings, Wil Myers provided the primary offensive highlight with an RBI double and the San Diego Padres beat the Mariners 2-0 on Tuesday night.
Darvish pitched at least eight shutout innings for the eighth time, but the first since June 28, 2014, against Minnesota when he was pitching for Texas.
San Diego stayed two games ahead of Milwaukee in the chase for the final wild card spot in the NL, while Seattle dropped into a tie with Tampa Bay a half-game behind Toronto in the AL race for the top spot.
Darvish (14-7) needed just 94 pitches to get through the eight innings. He struck out seven and the only batters to reach base came on Eugenio Suárez’s single in the first inning and Ty France’s base hit leading off the seventh.
In between, Darvish retired 16 straight batters and handed Seattle its first shutout since June 19 when the Mariners were stymied by the Angels and dropped to 29-39. Seattle had scored in 72 straight games.
Darvish also had some good fortune that several hard-hit balls by the Mariners seemed to die on the warning track on a chilly night. Darvish has pitched at least six innings in 25 of 27 starts this season and has struck out at least five batters in 17 straight.
Josh Hader–who entered with a 13.50 ERA in 11 appearances since being traded to San Diego–gave up a two-out single to Julio Rodríguez in the ninth, but struck out Ty France after a 10-pitch at-bat for his third save with the Padres.
Seattle starter Logan Gilbert (12-6) allowed only four hits but he was done after five innings due to an inflated pitch count. Gilbert threw 107 pitches to get through the fifth before turning over to Seattle’s bullpen.
The only damage against Gilbert came in the fourth inning when Jake Cronenworth reached on an infield single and with two outs Myers lined a double into the left field corner. Seattle wasn’t able to make a clean relay and Cronenworth scored without a throw.
San Diego added a run in the ninth when Juan Soto’s infield groundout scored Austin Nola.
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