BALTIMORE — A bunch of moments added up to two.
The Padres won a second straight game for the first time in three weeks on Sunday.
They did not beat the Orioles because of their resurgent offense, though Rodolfo Durán’s second home run in two days provided the difference in a 5-2 victory that clinched the Padres’ second consecutive series win.
This victory was built on some good luck, some good defense and some good pitches made when they absolutely had to be. There was also a really nice slide at the end.
Durán’s two-run blast — and at 432 feet, it was a blast — in the seventh inning salvaged what was by some measures the Padres’ most meager offensive output in more than a week.
They took a 2-0 lead in the second inning on Samad Taylor’s bunt single, a two-out groundball by Durán that bounced off second base and turned into an RBI double and Fernando Tatis Jr.’s soft single up the middle that scored Durán.
Their next hit was Tatis’ bunt single with one out in the fifth inning, which ended a streak of eight straight batters retired by Orioles starter Trevor Rogers.
The Padres ended up getting eight hits and scoring the five runs thanks to some gifted extra outs, plus the fortunate bounce off the bag.
But an offense that had surged over the past week was an auxiliary contributor Sunday.
Buehler battled through five innings, allowing one run on a solo homer by Jeremiah Jackson in his final inning.
Buehler retired the Orioles’ 2-3-4 hitters in order after surrendering a pair of singles to start the third inning.
The final out in the fourth inning was a gift from Jase Bowen, who ran 51 feet and dove to make a catch on the warning track that took away extra bases from Colton Cowser.
Buehler ended the fifth by striking out No.3 hitter Adley Rutschman to end the fifth inning with a man on first and Rodriguez warming up.
Rodriguez walked Pete Alonso to start the sixth before Samuel Basallo blooped a single into center field and Leody Taveras moved both runners up with a sacrifice bunt.
Rodriguez, a rookie right-hander then struck out the next two batters, ending the first with a 90 mph changeup and the second with a 100 mph fastball.
Jason Adam began the seventh and allowed a 4-1 lead to become 4-2 on a leadoff double by Blaze Alexander and two-out single by Gunnar Henderson. Adam was replaced by Adrian Morejón, who ended that inning and got the first two outs of the eighth — one of those on a vintage Manny Machado grab down the third base line and throw to first that Gavin Sheets stretched to the full extent of his 6-foot-3 frame to catch.
After Taveras beat out a dribbled grounder to the left side, Mason Miller was called on to try to get his fifth four-out save of the season.
He got it by ending the eighth with a strikeout and — after the Padres scored once in the ninth with help from three errors and Will Wagner swim move to beat a throw home on Tatis’ sacrifice fly — struck out two and ended the game with a fly ball in the ninth.