Padres power past Rangers with 3 homers

SAN DIEGO -- Ryan Schimpf, Austin Hedges and Cory Spangenberg all went deep, giving Trevor Cahill more than enough support Monday night as the Padres beat the Rangers, 5-1.
Cahill -- a Vista High School graduate -- has thrived pitching for his hometown team this season. He allowed one hit over 5 1/3 scoreless innings, striking out seven. The veteran right-hander could have been chasing a no-hitter but for Carlos Gomez's fourth-inning looper that landed a few feet in front of Spangenberg, who was stationed deeper than usual in left.
It was an impressive performance for Cahill, whose opponent changed on short notice when his start was pushed back a day. After Sunday's postponement, Cahill remained at Petco Park for a few hours, poring over scouting reports and making certain he was prepared for the Rangers.
"In the beginning, he was as sharp as any pitcher this year," Padres manager Andy Green said. "He had literally everything working in the first couple innings. … He didn't necessarily lose his stuff, it was just the pinpoint command. But he still was really, really good today."

Rangers righty Nick Martinez was more efficient than Cahill, but not quite as sharp. He allowed four runs on eight hits over six innings -- including solo homers by Schimpf in the third and Hedges in the fourth.
"I had a couple of balls that came back over the plate and they did some damage," Martinez said.

Shin-Soo Choo pulled one back for the Rangers with a blast in the seventh. But Spangenberg answered with his first dinger of the season, putting the Padres ahead by four again. The Rangers, who finished the night with just those two hits, wouldn't get any closer.
"It was definitely a team win," Schimpf said. "Guys swung the bats well. We had good at-bats as a team, and Trev threw a great game."

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Helping Hand: Cahill ran into trouble in the sixth, when walked and plunked consecutive batters. That's when Green called upon Brad Hand to face Joey Gallo, who is second in the American League with 10 homers this season. Hand threw three sharp curveballs in the strike zone, and Gallo watched all three. Hand would strike out Jonathan Lucroy one batter later, ending the threat.
"Instead of trying to strike somebody out, maybe just go for weak contact," Cahill said of his rising pitch count, which also contributed to the early exit. "But our bullpen is good. I go up there and try to get outs. However they come, I'll take outs."

Rally-starter Schimpf: Safe to say Schimpf's slump is over. After homering off Clayton Kershaw on Saturday, Schimpf led off the bottom of the second inning with a double to the right-center-field gap. He would score two batters later on Hedges' RBI single, the first of two runs in the frame. More >

QUOTABLE
"You can't explain it. It's just baseball. The only positive really is we are all kind of struggling at once, so maybe we will all get hot at once and have some fun." -- Lucroy, on the Rangers' offensive malaiseMore >
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• Hand has dominated left-handed hitters all season. But Choo managed to solve him with his solo blast in the seventh. It was the first homer by a left-handed hitter against Hand since the Nationals' Daniel Murphy took him deep last July 22. Lefties have recorded just three hits in 22 at-bats against Hand this season.

• The Rangers (13-20) fell to seven games under .500 for the first time May 19, 2015.
WHAT'S NEXT
Rangers: Right-hander A.J. Griffin, who grew up in San Diego, caps the San Diego half of the series for Texas with first pitch at 2:40 p.m. CT. Griffin has won his first three decisions for the second season in a row. All three of his wins this year have come on the road.
Padres:Jered Weaver has allowed 12 homers this season, the most in the National League. He gets the ball against Texas on Tuesday at 12:40 p.m. PT. He's faced the Rangers more than any other club, having posted a 3.44 ERA in 40 starts against Texas while he pitched for the Angels.
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