SAN DIEGO (AP) San Diego Padres rookie Joey Lucchesi could have been down for the count after Ryon Healy’s comebacker glanced off the big left-hander’s glove and then hit him in the groin.
Lucchesi, though, grabbed the ball and threw out Healy, took a few steps and then went down in a heap. But after being checked by the training staff, he got up, walked it off, threw a few warmup pitches and stayed in the game, striking out Kyle Seager and Mike Zunino to end the fourth inning.
”It hurt, for sure, but not enough to where I couldn’t play anymore,” Lucchesi (7-7) said after striking out nine in a career-best 6 2-3 innings to lead the Padres to an 8-3 win against the Seattle Mariners on Wednesday for a two-game sweep.
”It woke me up for sure,” Lucchesi said. ”I was like, `All right, let’s attack these guys, keep going.’ `’
Manager Andy Green was impressed with Lucchesi’s resiliency.
”The ball back off of him, to get right back up and finish that play, there’s a lot of pitchers who just end up staying on the ground in that moment. He recovered and was able to keep going. He battled well today. Those are good signs.”
As Lucchesi walked it off, some of his teammates had their faces in their gloves.
”Honestly they were probably laughing at me. I mean, we’re all boys,” Lucchesi said. ”It’s pretty funny that I got hit there and I was all right so I guess it’s all right to laugh at.”
The rookie was the beneficiary of a nice offensive outburst. Hunter Renfroe homered and drove in four runs, Manuel Margot had a homer among his three hits and prized rookie Luis Urias had his first three hits.
Lucchesi held the Mariners to one run and six hits in a career-high 6 2-3 innings, matched his career-best with nine strikeouts and walked two.
The lefty credited ”fastball location and finishing them off with two strikes. I was trying to beat my career record. I always get stuck at nine.”
The teams, deemed natural rivals by MLB, meet again in Seattle on Sept. 11-12. The Mariners lost their third straight and for the fifth time in seven games.
Eric Hosmer also had three hits for the Padres, who worked over Mariners starter Erasmo Ramirez (1-3) for seven runs and nine hits in three innings.
San Diego took a 7-1 lead after three innings.
Hosmer had an RBI single and Renfroe a sacrifice fly in the first. Margot homered into the second deck in left field with one out in the second, his seventh, and Renfroe drove a three-run home run into the balcony on the third level of the brick warehouse in the left-field corner. Urias was aboard on his first big league hit, a single to right, and Hosmer on a double to the left-center gap. San Diego loaded the bases on three straight singles and Lucchesi hit a sac fly for his first career RBI.
Urias, promoted Tuesday from Triple-A El Paso, hit a drive to right leading off the fourth that was initially ruled a home run. But the umps huddled and then went to video review, and it was ruled a foul ball. Urias then grounded out.
Green called it ”the most painful home run overturn I’ve ever been a part of , just because I can imagine how his family felt.”
Urias doubled leading off the sixth and singled in the eighth to finish 3 for 5. He went 0 for 3 with a walk in his debut Tuesday night.
”When I was running to first base I thought it hit the pole,” Urias said. ”I mean at the end, the replay, it doesn’t lie, right?
”I never thought I had it. I don’t hit homers that often,” the diminutive second baseman said.
But he was thrilled with his first hit, and said the ball will go to his parents back home in Mexico.
Margot’s third hit was an RBI double in the fifth.
Robinson Cano and Nelson Cruz hit RBI singles and Kyle Seager had a run-scoring double for the Mariners.
”Disappointment might be an understatement,” Seattle manager Scott Servais said. ”We just didn’t play good baseball here at all. We didn’t swing the bat particularly well. Obviously we struggled on the mound today early in the ball game. It is very frustrating.”
MARINERS HITS
Jean Segura collected his 1,000th career hit in the first, a single. He added a single in the third.
Roenis Elias, who threw a career-high five innings of relief, had his first career hit, a single in the seventh that chased Lucchesi.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Mariners: LHP James Paxton, on the disabled list with a bruised left forearm, is expected to return to the rotation Saturday at Oakland. He was struck by a line drive by Jed Lowrie at Oakland on Aug. 14.
UP NEXT
Mariners: LHP Wade LeBlanc (7-3, 3.92) is scheduled to start the opener of a four-game series Thursday night at Oakland, which is second in the AL West behind Houston. The Mariners remain in third place.
Padres: Rookie LHP Eric Lauer (5-7, 5.30) is scheduled to start the opener of a four-game home series against the Colorado Rockies, who counter with German Marquez (11-9, 4.21).
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