SAN DIEGO (AP) — Other than three pitches to Tommy Pham, newcomer Sean Manaea did just fine in his home debut with the San Diego Padres.
Manaea pitched six strong innings and Manny Machado had a two-run homer among his three hits for the Padres, who won 4-1 on Monday night to hand the Cincinnati Reds their seventh straight loss.
The Padres extended their major league record with 12 consecutive errorless games to open a season.
The Reds took a rare lead when Pham, who played for the Padres the past two seasons before leaving as a free agent, hit a solo homer with two outs in the first. It was his first of the season and doubled his hit total. Pham finished with three hits.
That was the extent of the Reds’ scoring, though. The Padres came right back when Austin Nola hit a leadoff single and Machado followed with a line-shot homer to left field, his second, off Nick Lodolo (0-2), who was making his second big league start.
“I definitely battled through a lot of stuff and the Reds were definitely putting the bat on the ball and making me work, but I got out of some tough jams and the defense was good, as usual,” Manaea said. “It was a lot of fun.
“I just used my stuff effectively and tried to keep guys off balance, except for Tommy. I don’t know what I did to him. … I threw meatballs, I guess. I don’t know what happened there. He’s got my number.”
Manaea (2-1) held Cincinnati to six hits, struck out six and walked two. Taylor Rogers pitched the ninth for his fifth save in as many chances.
Manaea was obtained from Oakland late in spring training. Padres manager Bob Melvin said Manaea has been on regular rest since spring training and he wasn’t going to let him throw more than 80 pitches. The big left-hander threw 78.
“He’s been working pretty hard,” Melvin said. “One…