Guardians grab big lead, hold on vs. Padres

David Fry capped a five-run first inning with a three-run homer off Ryan Weathers and the visiting Cleveland Guardians held on to defeat the San Diego Padres 8-6 on Thursday night.

The Padres countered with Manny Machado's three-run homer off Logan Allen in the bottom of the first but failed to capitalize on a series of opportunities to pull even or take the lead.

Machado struck out with the bases loaded and two outs in the second. Xander Bogaerts grounded into a double play with one out and the bases loaded in the fourth. They botched a squeeze play to tie the game in the fifth. And Juan Soto was thrown out trying to steal third with one out in the sixth ahead of a single by Bogaerts.

Cleveland then scored an insurance run in the eighth. Fry led off with a double off the glove of Trent Grisham at the wall in center and scored on Andres Gimenez's two-out single to right.

The game opened with Gimenez, Amed Rosario and Jose Ramirez loading the bases with three straight singles against Weathers. After Josh Bell struck out, Josh Naylor hit a two-run single to extend the longest active hitting streak in the major leagues to 14 games. Weathers struck out Gabe Arias for the second out before Fry hit his first homer of the season, down the line in left.

Allen walked Fernando Tatis Jr. and Juan Soto to open the bottom of the first, ahead of Machado's eighth homer of the season - a 408-foot drive into the second deck in left-center.

Neither starting pitcher was effective.

Weathers gave up six runs on seven hits in 1 2/3 innings - the final run coming on Ramirez's two-out double in the second that ended the left-hander's night and pinned him with the loss. Weathers is now 1-5 with a 6.08 ERA.

Allen gave up five runs on four hits and four walks in three innings. The final two runs charged to Allen scored on Brandon Dixon's groundout to first. Bogaerts and Ha-Seong Kim opened the Padres' third inning with singles, advanced on Nelson Cruz's flyout to right and scored when Bell had to dive to tag the base at first on Dixon's slow roller.

Trevor Stephan, the fifth of six Guardians pitchers, was credited with the win to improve to 3-2. Emmanuel Clase got four outs to record his 21st save.