Dominican Manny Machado hits grand slam in Padres' win over Nationals

(AFP)The San Diego Padres cruised to a 7x2 win over the Washington Nationals on Friday at Nationals Park in Washington, where Dominican Manny Machado connected for a grand slam in the top of the ninth inning.

Machado, 33, has 18 homers and 60 RBIs in the 2025 season.

The game remained tied until the ninth inning, when San Diego scored five runs to seal the win.

"We're going to have to learn to win in different ways," Machado said. "Sometimes we're going to have to steal bases, be aggressive and other times we're going to need the reliever, we have an excellent group."

"I wanted to drive in a run, I ended up with four," Machado added about the thirteenth grand slam of his careerin the Big Leagues.

San Diego ranks second in a highly competitive West division in the National League, which is led by the Los Angeles Dodgers and a close third by the San Francisco Giants.

The Cleveland Rangers win over the Athletics

Elsewhere, Dominican Emmanuel Clase achieved his 21st save of the season in the Cleveland Guardians's 8x6 victory over the Athletics.

Clase, 27, is fifth on the overall MLB saves list with seven fewer than the leader, Robert Suarez.

Puerto Rican Johnathan Rodriguez connected for the first home run of his career with a blast to left field in the second inning, the first of nine hits for the Rangers.

The Tampa Bay Rays trounced the Baltimore Orioles

In another result, Dominican Junior Caminero connected for two home runs in the Tampa Bay Rays 11x1 win over the Baltimore Orioles.

Caminero, who finished second in the Home Run Festival this week, is living the best moment of his career and has become a key piece of the Rays' offense.

Cuban Yandy Diaz added to the Rays' offensive explosion with three hits and four RBIs.

Tampa Bay caps a streak of seven consecutive losses in its first game after the break for the All-Star Game.