Padres beat Pirates after Fernando Tatis Jr. hit by pitch, exits game

PITTSBURGH — This night came with two sighs of relief.

The Padres survived some shoddy pitching and then pulled away to beat the Pirates, 9-4, on Friday night.

And the Padres appeared to have gotten what, considering the alternative, was good news. Fernando Tatis Jr. was diagnosed with a bruised forearm after he was hit by a pitch in the top of the third inning.

For all the significant contributors the Padres lost over the season’s first five weeks, their leadoff hitter and leading hitter walking quickly off the field Friday night, clearly in pain and holding his left arm, where a large welt had already formed, represented a potentially devastating blow.

Tatis, the National League leader with a .345 batting average and the Padres’ leader in virtually every offensive category, spun around and ran from the batter’s box after a 93-mph fastball from Pirates right-hander Mitch Keller struck him. Tatis knelt down for several seconds, was briefly examined by athletic trainer Mark Rogow, then rose and walked toward the Padres’ dugout.

Oscar Gonzalez ran for Tatis and replaced him in right field.

The team announced later in the game that X-rays on Tatis’ arm were negative. The possibility exists that he could return within a couple days.

If that happens, it appears he will be reunited with center fielder Jackson Merrill on Monday in New York when the Padres begin a series against the Yankees. Merrill was the Padres’ leading hitter when he was placed on the injured list with a right hamstring strain on April 7.

Second baseman Jake Cronenworth, who suffered a fractured rib when he was hit by a pitch April 6, is expected to rejoin the team Friday in Colorado. First baseman Luis Arraez missed six games last week with a concussion.

The game was scoreless when Tatis departed. Then it went off the rails.

The teams waited out the rain for one hour, 12 minutes before the game began.

Most of the pitchers worked as if they were in a fog.

Tatis led off the game with an eight-pitch walk before Mitch Keller retired the next three batters with 12 more pitches.

Cease, whose fastball command had been his primary issue through his first six starts, was sharper early. But he wasn’t missing bats.

The Pirates didn’t do any damage in the first inning, but they kept getting enough of his slider and fastball, fouling off seven two-strike pitches and making him throw 27 pitches to four batters.

Cease had retired six straight when his command did falter. With two outs in the bottom of the third inning, he walked Oneil Cruz. The Pirates’ speedy center fielder then stole second base and scored on a single by Bryan Reynolds.

The Padres took the lead with two runs in the fourth — the first on Gavin Sheets’ home run and the second when Xander Bogaerts singled, stole second and scored on Tyler Wade’s single.

Cease would take 30 pitches to get through the fourth, 23 of them after he retired the first two batters.

He walked Joey Bart, then tried to field a comebacker from Ke’Bryan Hayes but instead merely slowed the ball enough that no infielder could get to it. A fastball off Adam Frazier’s arm loaded the bases, and Cease walked Alexander Canario to bring in a run before ending the inning with a fly ball out.

He was at 91 pitches, and he would not throw another one.

The Padres took a 5-2 lead in the fifth inning with four straight one-out hits and help from an error.

Gonzalez began the hit streak with a single through the left side and scored on a double lined to the right field corner by Arraez.

Manny Machado followed with a single on a sinking liner that Arraez had to hold up on to make sure it wasn’t caught. Arraez ran to third when the ball skipped past Cruz, but he stopped there. That is, until the throw in from Reynolds, the right fielder, skipped past first baseman Enmanuel Valdez. That sent Arraez home and, when the ball got into the Pirates dugout, Machado to third.

A single by Sheets then drove in Machado.

Wandy Peralta, who had walked three batters in his first 12 appearances (11 2/3 innings), walked the first one he faced Friday. A bloop single by Reynolds followed the walk by Cruz, and both runners stole during Andrew McCutchen’s strikeout. Cruz scored on a groundout by Valdez, which sent Reynolds to third and ended Peralta’s night.

After hitting a batter, Alek Jacob ended the fifth with a strikeout.

Jacob would, however, surrender a home run to start the bottom of the sixth on a change-up left in the heart of the zone that Frazier sent to the seats beyond the right-field wall to get the Pirates to 5-4.

Yuki Matsui relieved Jacob after a one-out double. He walked a batter but ended the inning without further incident.

Jeremiah Estrada struck out the three batters he faced in the seventh.

That restored some order for the Padres.

They upped their lead to 8-4 in the top of the eighth on one-out singles by Wade and Jason Heyward and two-out singles by Brandon Lockwood and Arraez.

Adrián Morejón allowed a hit in a scoreless eighth inning. And after the Padres added a final run on a walk, a hit batter and Heyward’s sacrifice fly, Ryan Bergert worked around a one-out hit batter to finish the game.