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The San Diego Padres sit 21 games over .500 for the first time in 14 years.

They will try to improve on that figure Tuesday night when bring a four-game winning streak into the middle contest of a three-game series against the visiting Houston Astros.

San Diego started the series between playoff contenders with a 3-1 win Monday night, getting six shutout innings from Yu Darvish plus solo homers from Jackson Merrill and Jurickson Profar (4-for-4). Aside from two errors in a row in the top of the eighth inning, the Padres looked the part of an October challenger.

“Everybody knows we have a really good team, especially right now,” San Diego leadoff hitter Luis Arraez said. “We compete, man. We have everything to win. We just need to stay healthy. If we stay healthy, we can do a lot of good things.”

Arraez gave San Diego a bit of a scare in that regard Monday night, coming up limping after being thrown out at the plate in the fifth inning on Profar’s single to left. After Arraez doubled in the seventh, manager Mike Shildt lifted him for a pinch runner, but the two-time batting champion said after the game that he would be in the lineup on Tuesday.

The Padres (86-65) hold a 2 1/2-game lead on the Arizona Diamondbacks (83-67) for the National League’s top wild-card spot, which brings with it home-field advantage in the wild-card round. San Diego trails the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers (89-61) by 3 1/2 games in the NL West.

The Padres will try to keep their run going — they are 36-15 since July 20 — behind Michael King (12-9, 3.06 ERA). The right-hander last pitched on Wednesday, dropping a 5-2 decision in Seattle after allowing three runs (one earned) in five innings and fanning six.

King is 3-1 with a 2.61 ERA in six career games (one start) against Houston, all of them when he pitched for the New York Yankees.

The Astros (81-69) will counter with right-hander Hunter Brown (11-8, 3.59 ERA). He coming off a 5-4 loss to Oakland on Wednesday, when he was tagged for nine hits and five runs in five-plus innings. He walked one and fanned seven.

“I thought they just kind of beat me there,” Brown said postgame of the A’s. “Coming in, I knew I was going to have to compete tonight. I coughed up the lead for the second time in the game … that was tough.”

In his only career outing against the Padres, Brown absorbed a six-hit, six-run pounding over 4 1/3 innings and took a loss on Sept. 8, 2023.

Houston’s American League West lead over Seattle (77-73), which was idle on Monday, slipped to four games after the series-opening loss in San Diego. However, the Astros still appear to be in good position as they had won the previous four games.

The Astros’ lineup would get tougher if Kyle Tucker can rediscover his swing after returning from a shin fracture earlier this month. He is hitting .259 (7-for-27) with one homer and three RBIs in nine games since coming of the injured list.

–Field Level Media