SAN DIEGO -- As long as Mike Soroka can stop getting hit by pitches thrown by friends, he will keep himself in the thick of the National League Cy Young Award race and continue to draw praise from the many Braves teammates who continue to be amazed by the talent and maturity he is showing while still a few weeks shy of his 22nd birthday.

“Who cares about the Rookie of the Year? I think he’s right in it for Cy Young,” Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman said. “He’s 10-1 with a [2-something ERA]. What else do you have to do? He’s pretty special. For him to be only 21 and doing that, that’s what makes it even more special to me.”

Other than his right knuckle being nicked by a pitch, Soroka encountered little trouble Sunday afternoon as he helped the Braves complete a three-game sweep with a 4-1 win over the Padres at Petco Park. Freeman backed the rookie’s latest gem and broke a scoreless tie with a three-run homer in the eighth against Trey Wingenter.

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“You never know coming off four days off [during the All-Star break], what the mood is going to be or whether you might lose the mojo or whatever you say” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “These guys came out smoking from the first inning of the first day back.”

As the Braves began the season’s second half with three straight wins (one more than they totaled over 21 games in San Diego from 2012-18), they saw Josh Donaldson tally three homers and Freeman snap out of a 0-for-11 funk with the three-run blast he celebrated in front of the plethora of family members who were in his native Southern California for this series.

But as they now sit seven games ahead of the second-place Nationals in the National League East, the most important development might have been the fact Dallas Keuchel and Soroka both recorded 21 outs in their respective starts. This marked just the third time this season Atlanta has produced a pair of seven-inning starts during a series.

Looking toward potential postseason matchups, the Braves have reason to feel good about what they have with Keuchel, a former American League Cy Young Award winner, and Soroka, who owns MLB’s second-best ERA (2.24) and possesses the potential to be a Cy Young candidate for many years to come.

“He’s well beyond his years,” Braves catcher Brian McCann said. “He’s composed. Nothing really rattles him. He knows exactly what he has to do. He can manipulate the baseball with the best of them.”

As Soroka recorded a career-high nine strikeouts over seven scoreless innings against the Padres, he benefited from Ronald Acuna Jr.’s ability to leap against the center-field wall to rob Manny Machado of a two-out extra-base hit in the fifth. He also was fortunate that the third-inning pitch thrown by his childhood friend Cal Quantrill simply grazed his right knuckle.

Soroka wasn’t as fortunate when he was forced to exit his June 23 start against the Nationals after being hit in the right forearm by a pitch thrown by Austin Voth, a fellow rookie he spent some time working out with this past offseason.

"I think when [Quantrill’s pitch] hit me, I knew it didn’t really pinch up against the bat,” Soroka said. “It just kind of grazed me more than anything.”

Soroka scattered three hits over the five innings that followed and retired each of the final eight batters he faced. In other words, he extended the strong impression he made in the first inning when he made Machado look silly while swinging and missing 1-2 changeup.

Throwing a right-on-right changeup might be uncomfortable for many pitchers, especially one who is just 21 starts into his career. But McCann had no fear calling for the pitch against Machado, who whiffed on two of the three changeups he saw from Soroka.

“A lot of it is confidence and having the confidence to try things,” Soroka said. “Last year, we didn’t throw that many right-on-right changeups. This year, that has been such a huge pitch for me late in the games. They get used to seeing sinker/slider, sinker/slider. Once you mix in the changeup, it just gives you a new look.”

As Soroka has completed at least seven innings in five of his first 16 starts of this season -- and allowed one earned run or less in 10 of the 15 starts not shortened by a forearm bruise -- he has joined the Dodgers’ Hyun-Jin Ryu and the Nationals’ Max Scherzer at the forefront of discussions about top NL Cy Young Award candidates.

Soroka’s physical durability will be questioned as he nears the end of his first full MLB season and positions himself to pass the professional-high 153-inning workload he completed in 2017. But the Braves have little concern about the mental fortitude of this young hurler, who made his strongest impression on McCann when he surrendered four first-inning runs to the Phillies on July 4 and then held them scoreless until exiting with two outs in the fifth.

“His stuff is off the charts,” McCann said. “His makeup [is great]. He’s going to be good for a really, really long time.”