But Franklin was forced to sit out after he was struck in the head with a bat by Tampa Bay Rays teammate Kevin Kiermaier, who was warming up in the on-deck circle.
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Franklin and catcher Luke Maile each had three hits and Maile drove in four runs for the Rays, who have scored 35 runs in three games, the most in club history over a three-game span.
Chris Archer and Brad Miller did almost all the work while the Tampa Bay Rays won their fourth straight. Nick Franklin and Miller had two-run home runs in the fifth, Corey Dickerson added a solo shot in the sixth and Evan Longoria hit his team-best 27th, a two-run shot, in the seventh.
Alexei Ramirez hit his fifth homer and Derek Norris walked twice, and those were the only baserunners against Smyly (5-11).
Archer struck out nine in 7 1/3 innings, Miller hit his third homer in two days and Tampa Bay beat the San Diego Padres 2-0 on Wednesday to complete a three-game sweep. However, Franklin was removed before the start of the second inning.
“I pretty much single-handedly sucked the soul out of the team”, Jackson said. But he did not take the field for the second inning, and the Rays scrambled their lineup with their regular middle-infield starters, shortstop Matt Duffy and second baseman Logan Forsythe, already injured.
The Padres have lost seven of nine.
“He made some real nice adjustments, but for us offensively we dug too much of a hole, swung up in the zone a lot”, Padres manager Andy Green said. “I don’t think he could be a better face and ambassador for this organization”.
Longoria holds the franchise mark in a number of offensive categories including homers, RBIs and extra-base hits. To make room on the roster, the Padres optioned RHP Leonel Campos, who gave up five runs in the eighth inning of Monday’s loss. The Padres recalled RHP Kevin Quackenbush, who went to high school at Tampa Jesuit and played at USF, from Triple-A El Paso.
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Padres: RHP Tyson Ross (right shoulder inflammation) threw 31 pitches in a simulated game. Friedrich will carry a 4-9 record and 4.69 ERA into his next start at home against the Cubs. He’s at risk of becoming the majors’ first 20-game loser since Detroit’s Mike Maroth (21) in 2003, but also leads the AL with 186 strikeouts.
