WASHINGTON — The Padres hit two home runs off their former top prospect and survived a two-run homer by another former top prospect to beat the Nationals 7-4 Tuesday night.
Juan Soto, in his second trip back to Nationals Park to play his former team, was 3-for-3 with a solo homer and a walk.
For those not familiar with how the Padres mortgaged the future with a trade to acquire Soto last August, they dealt two different former No.1 prospects, both of whom they faced Tuesday.
Left-hander MacKenzie Gore, the 24-year-old who was the Padres’ first-round pick in 2017 and their top prospect from 2019-21, started and went 4⅔ innings. He departed having thrown 103 pitches and allowed three runs on Xander Bogaerts’ two-run homer in the first inning and Brandon Dixon’s solo homer leading off the fourth.
CJ Abrams, the 22-year-old who was the Padres’ first-round pick in 2019 and their top prospect in 2022, homered off Yu Darvish with two outs in the fifth inning. That was followed by a game-tying home run by Lane Thomas.
Both were part of a package of six players that also included No.1 prospect Robert Hassell III the Padres sent to Washington to get Soto and Josh Bell at last year’s trade deadline.
The Padres regained the lead in the sixth when Rougned Odor tagged up and scored on a shallow fly ball that likely would have turned into a double play had it not been inexplicably cut off by Nationals first baseman Dominic Smith.
Soto padded the lead with a leadoff homer in the seventh. Bogaerts followed with a single before Jake Cronenworth homered to make it 7-3.
The four home runs were the Padres’ second most in a game this season, trailing only the six they hit at the 7,349-foot elevation of Mexico City on April 29.
The power surge made up for another night of futility with runners in scoring position. The Padres were hitless (0-for-9) in that circumstance for the 18th time in 48 games and are batting an MLB-low .184 with runners in scoring position this season.
Darvish allowed three runs in six innings. Tim Hill pitched a scoreless seventh before the Nationals scored a run off Nick Martinez in the eighth. Josh Hader worked the ninth for his 12th save.
The victory, at the start of a nine-game road trip, was the Padres’ second in a row. They had won just two of their 13 games leading up to this mini-streak.
