SAN DIEGO — This just doesn’t happen.
Not for the San Diego Padres. Certainly not at Petco Park.
A team challenged for power virtually all season hit five home runs in a rout of the Minnesota Twins on Friday night.
Luke Voit and Manny Machado hit two-run homers sandwiched around solo shots by Ha-Seong Kim and Eric Hosmer, and Jorge Alfaro hit a three-run homer. The home runs and Voit’s RBI double powered a 10-1 victory over the leaders of the American League Central.
Byron Buxton’s 25th home run of the season was the only run off Padres starter Blake Snell in his sixth innings. The Twins had a runner in scoring position with less than two outs in the fifth and sixth, but Snell escaped both times.
The five homers were two more than the Padres had hit in a game in 2022. They had not hit five in a game since July 16, 2021, at Washington and hadn’t hit five in a game at home since June 25, 2021, against Arizona.
Their seven extra-base hits were also their most at Petco Park this season.
The uncharacteristic show of power came against Joe Ryan, the Twins’ best starting pitcher. He was lifted after Alfaro’s homer drove in the latter half of the Padres’ six runs in the fifth inning.
It was the fifth time this season in which the Padres scored six or more runs in an inning but the first time they did so at home.
Voit sent a two-out, two-run homer just over the wall in left field in the first inning. Kim, who had homered once in his previous 217 at-bats, hit a solo shot to left with two outs in the second. Hosmer ripped a solo homer a projected 410 feet to straightaway center field in the fourth.
Machado hit his team-leading 17th homer of the season in the fifth. Voit added an RBI double three batters later. Two batters later, Alfaro cleared the right-field wall.
The Padres entered the game with just 81 home runs, fifth fewest in the major leagues. They had hit three home runs in just three games all season.
