The San Diego Padres (8-3) and Pittsburgh Pirates (3-7) went head-to-head for the first time since June 23, 2019. The Pirates had a six-game win streak against San Diego going into the night, but Monday was all Padres.

Yu Darvish, starting in his third game with the Padres, had unarguably the best start in his Padre tenure thus far, recording seven innings of one-run ball, three hits, one walk and six strikeouts. His earned run average (ERA) dropped 116 points, from 4.22 to 3.06, and has 19 strikeouts in 17⅔ innings pitched (9.7 strikeouts-per-9).

For the offense, it was Wil Myers who had a phenomenal night, hitting his third home run of the season and recording a career-best 5 RBI’s (done twice before). Myers started out the night with an RBI single in the first inning to take an early lead. He followed that up with a go-ahead two-run home run in the sixth and a two-run single in the seventh to cap off a special night for the longest tenured Padre in 2021.

The 30-year-old outfielder went 3-for-5 to increase his batting average by 36 points (from .314 to .350) and his on-base-plus-slugging (OPS) by 95 points (from 1.015 to 1.110). Myers took the club lead with his 11th RBI of the season, in addition to coming within one hit of second baseman Jake Cronenworth for the team lead. He also tied first baseman Eric Hosmer for the home run lead.

The one run not batted in by Myers came off the bat of Victor Caratini, a two-out double in the sixth inning to add on to a 4-1 lead. Caratini came from the Darvish trade as the pitcher’s personal catcher, and has recorded at least one RBI in each of Darvish’s starts.

The Padres face the Pirates for Game 2 of the four-game series Tuesday afternoon as Blake Snell (0-0, 1.86 ERA) makes his first road start in a Padres uniform. He’ll face opposing pitcher Chad Kuhl (0-1, 6.43 ERA) for the Pittsburgh Pirates in a 3:35 p.m. start time at PNC Park.

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