Fernando Tatis Jr. has been the story of San Diego's second half, and the lineup around him has followed his lead. Washington, meanwhile, had already dropped the first 2 games of this set before Tuesday even started.
The Padres didn't need a signature swing to bury this one. San Diego scored in 5 different innings, a 3-run 3rd, 2 more in the 4th, 2 more in the 5th, then single runs in the 7th and 8th, while Washington's offense produced exactly one big inning of its own, 2 runs in the top of the 3rd, and nothing else. San Diego finished with 16 hits to Washington's 4.
That's the shape of this series and, honestly, this season for these two clubs. San Diego is 77-68 and clinging to the wild-card picture; Washington fell to 67-80 with its 5th straight loss. The Polymarket chat for this one ran hot, 12,482 members and 66% above the season median crowd, with the busiest 5-minute stretch hitting 443 messages as the Padres kept adding on. "Should I have faith?" one poster holding San Diego wrote mid-game — turns out there wasn't much reason to doubt it.
Buehler got through his outing without the kind of implosion that's dogged him at times this year, and with a lineup doing this much damage, he didn't need to be perfect. For Washington, this is just where the season is right now: outmanned on the mound and unable to make one bad Kent start feel like anything but a laugher.