JP Sears, Padres complete sweep of Braves

Kevin Acee, The San Diego Union-Tribune on Jun 25, 2026

Published in Baseball

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SAN DIEGO — In the latest sign the San Diego Padres’ listing season may have stabilized, they completed a sweep of one of the best teams in the major leagues on Wednesday at Petco Park.

It was as much the manner in which they went about completing their 5-2 victory over the Atlanta Braves as the result.

The game went about as perfectly as it could have and as it pretty much had to.

Fill-in starting pitcher J. P. Sears seized his first opportunity of the season, and the Padres hitters kept creating opportunities and capitalized on enough of them, giving a depleted bullpen a cushion with which to work.

It was how a contest like this gets mapped out beforehand when a manager and his coaches go over contingencies beforehand. And it was how such a game so rarely unfolds.

Sears, called up Tuesday when Lucas Giolito was placed on the injured list with elbow inflammation, shut out the Braves for 5 2/3 innings before leaving a changeup too high in the zone and having Joey Bart launch it to the second balcony of the Western Metal Building to get the Braves to 3-2.

The Padres being 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position to that point seemed like it might haunt them, given that they were going to have to navigate the end of the game without Adrian Morejón and Mason Miller due to their recent workload.

But the Padres scored twice more in the sixth inning before three relievers closed out their ninth victory in 10 games, a stretch that follows a 2-11 skid. The sweep against the Braves, who entered the game MLB’s third-best record at 48-30, was the Padres’ first since May 15-17 at Seattle.

David Morgan, who finished off the sixth, followed with a scoreless seventh. Wandy Peralta did the same in the eighth, and Jason Adam worked a 1-2-3 ninth.

The Padres scored almost every which way over four consecutive innings.

Braves starter Martín Pérez, who had a 3.46 ERA in 10 starts for the Padres at the end of 2024, threw just 11 pitches in the first inning and 12 in the second.

The Padres’ first hit gave them a 1-0 lead, as Ty France sent a changeup at the knees 417 feet and into the seats beyond left field.

They added a run in the second when two walks and a single loaded the bases before France drove in a run with a line drive to right field that right fielder Eli White dove to catch.

It was 3-0 after five innings.

Fernando Tatis Jr. led off the inning with a walk, and Samad Taylor singled to end Pereze’s day. It was the first time in 12 starts this season that the veteran lefty did not last five innings.

With James Karinchak in, Tatis and Taylor executed a double steal before Xander Bogaerts dropped a flare into center field to drive in Tatis with one out.

Jackson Merrill and Miguel Andujar followed with groundouts to leave Taylor at third.

After Bart got the Braves within a run in the top of the sixth, Taylor would not let the Padres come up empty in the bottom of the inning.

France began the inning with a double off Dylan Dodd and was sacrificed to third by Freddy Fermin. Jase Bowen walked and stole second during Tatis’ strikeout before Taylor poked a single off the end of his bat to drive in both runners.

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