SAN DIEGO -- For the second straight outing, Merrill Kelly looked more like the Merrill Kelly the Diamondbacks have grown accustomed to seeing for nearly a decade.
Mixing up his pitches, Kelly kept the Padres’ hitters off balance during his seven innings of work, and the Diamondbacks did just enough offensively to come away with a 3-1 win Thursday night and a split of the four-game set at Petco Park.
The 2026 season has been a struggle for Kelly. After re-signing with the Diamondbacks as a free agent this past offseason, he was named the team's Opening Day starter only to suffer an injury during Spring Training that caused him to miss the first few weeks of the regular season.
Kelly has long been a consistent member of the rotation, but that hadn't been the case this year.
Finally, in his previous start, Kelly showed some of his old form against the Brewers, and it was more of the same against the Padres.
Kelly allowed one run over seven innings -- a solo homer by Manny Machado in the second -- while walking three and striking out six.