SAN DIEGO (AP) — Martín Pérez beat his old team in his first victory since San Diego acquired him at the trade deadline, and the Padres defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates 8-2 on Wednesday for their 19th win in 22 games.
Jake Cronenworth and David Peralta homered for the Padres, who swept six games from the Pirates this season. San Diego (69-53) improved to a season-high 16 games over .500, sweeping the three-game series and winning eight series in a row for the first time since 2007.
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San Diego Padres' David Peralta celebrates after hitting a two-run home run during the third inning of a baseball game Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
San Diego Padres' Jake Cronenworth celebrates after hitting a three-run home run during the first inning of a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
San Diego Padres' Jake Cronenworth celebrates after hitting a three-run home run during the first inning of a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
San Diego Padres' Jake Cronenworth celebrates after hitting a three-run home run during the first inning of a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
San Diego Padres starting pitcher Martin Perez works against a Pittsburgh Pirates batter during the second inning of a baseball game Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
San Diego Padres starting pitcher Martin Perez works against a Pittsburgh Pirates batter during the second inning of a baseball game Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
San Diego Padres starting pitcher Martin Perez works against a Pittsburgh Pirates batter during the first inning of a baseball game Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
San Diego Padres starting pitcher Martin Perez works against a Pittsburgh Pirates batter during the first inning of a baseball game Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
San Diego Padres right fielder David Peralta, left, celebrates with teammates center fielder Jackson Merrill and left fielder Bryce Johnson after the Padres defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates 8-2 in a baseball game to sweep the series, Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
Pittsburgh has lost 10 consecutive games for the first time since June 13-22 last year. The Pirates are 1-12 since July 31, the day after the trade deadline.
Pérez (3-5) didn’t get a decision in his first two starts after San Diego obtained him on July 31 for Ronaldys Jimenez, an 18-year-old left-hander in his first professional season.
“He’s been huge,″ Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “He’s just a real veteran guy with moxie and he has the stuff to match it.”
Pérez allowed one run and five hits in 5 1/3 innings with eight strikeouts and a walk.
“I’m pitching different and using different sequences,″ he said. “I used to work too much with my fastball and everybody is ready for that. But I’m trying to slow things down and then go back to the (fastball). I think that’s working and I’m going to continue doing that.”
Mitch Keller (10-7) gave up a season-high eight runs and eight hits in five innings. He is 0-2 in six starts since beating the New York Mets on July 8.
Cronenworth followed singles by Luis Arraez and Jurickson Profar with a home run to right of a Keller sweeper, his 15th home run this season and first since July 20.
“I feel good,″ Cronenworth said. “I didn’t have the greatest month last month but I feel like I was still finding a way to get on base.″
Peralta homered on his 37th birthday, a two-run drive in the third for an 8-0 lead. Signed to a minor league contract in May, Peralta increased his season home run total to six by homering on consecutive days.
“He just continues to take good at-bats,″ Shildt said. “He’s a positive presence on the field and in the clubhouse.”
Rookie Jackson Merrill hit a two-run triple in the third.
Pittsburgh’s Joey Bart homered in the sixth.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Pirates: RHP Colin Holderman (right wrist) threw his first bullpen session since going on the IL on Aug. 8.
UP NEXT
Pirates: RHP Paul Skenes (6-2, 2.25) starts Friday night at Seattle on Friday night after going 0-2 in his last four starts. RHP Logan Gilbert (7-8, 2.91) starts for the Mariners.
Padres: San Diego faces Colorado and RHP Cal Quantrill (7-8, 4.56) on Friday, with RHP Matt Waldon (7-9, 4.00) starting for the Padres.
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
San Diego Padres' David Peralta celebrates after hitting a two-run home run during the third inning of a baseball game Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
San Diego Padres' Jake Cronenworth celebrates after hitting a three-run home run during the first inning of a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
San Diego Padres' Jake Cronenworth celebrates after hitting a three-run home run during the first inning of a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
San Diego Padres' Jake Cronenworth celebrates after hitting a three-run home run during the first inning of a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
San Diego Padres starting pitcher Martin Perez works against a Pittsburgh Pirates batter during the second inning of a baseball game Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
San Diego Padres starting pitcher Martin Perez works against a Pittsburgh Pirates batter during the second inning of a baseball game Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
San Diego Padres starting pitcher Martin Perez works against a Pittsburgh Pirates batter during the first inning of a baseball game Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
San Diego Padres starting pitcher Martin Perez works against a Pittsburgh Pirates batter during the first inning of a baseball game Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
San Diego Padres right fielder David Peralta, left, celebrates with teammates center fielder Jackson Merrill and left fielder Bryce Johnson after the Padres defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates 8-2 in a baseball game to sweep the series, Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
What's in a name change, after all?
The water bordered by the Southern United States, Mexico and Cuba will be critical to shipping lanes and vacationers whether it’s called the Gulf of Mexico, as it has been for four centuries, or the Gulf of America, as President Donald Trump ordered this week. North America’s highest mountain peak will still loom above Alaska whether it’s called Mt. Denali, as ordered by former President Barack Obama in 2015, or changed back to Mt. McKinley as Trump also decreed.
But Trump's territorial assertions, in line with his “America First” worldview, sparked a round of rethinking by mapmakers and teachers, snark on social media and sarcasm by at least one other world leader. And though Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis put the Trumpian “Gulf of America” on an official document and some other gulf-adjacent states were considering doing the same, it was not clear how many others would follow Trump's lead.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum joked that if Trump went ahead with the renaming, her country would rename North America “Mexican America.” On Tuesday, she toned it down: “For us and for the entire world it will continue to be called the Gulf of Mexico.”
Map lines are inherently political. After all, they're representations of the places that are important to human beings — and those priorities can be delicate and contentious, even more so in a globalized world.
There’s no agreed-upon scheme to name boundaries and features across the Earth.
“Denali” is the mountain's preferred name for Alaska Natives, while “McKinley" is a tribute to President William McKinley, designated in the late 19th century by a gold prospector. China sees Taiwan as its own territory, and the countries surrounding what the United States calls the South China Sea have multiple names for the same body of water.
The Persian Gulf has been widely known by that name since the 16th century, although usage of “Gulf” and “Arabian Gulf” is dominant in many countries in the Middle East. The government of Iran — formerly Persia — threatened to sue Google in 2012 over the company’s decision not to label the body of water at all on its maps. Many Arab countries don’t recognize Israel and instead call it Palestine. And in many official releases, Israel calls the occupied West Bank by its biblical name, “Judea and Samaria.”
Americans and Mexicans diverge on what to call another key body of water, the river that forms the border between Texas and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas. Americans call it the Rio Grande; Mexicans call it the Rio Bravo.
Trump's executive order — titled “Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness” — concludes thusly: “It is in the national interest to promote the extraordinary heritage of our Nation and ensure future generations of American citizens celebrate the legacy of our American heroes. The naming of our national treasures, including breathtaking natural wonders and historic works of art, should honor the contributions of visionary and patriotic Americans in our Nation’s rich past.”
But what to call the gulf with the 3,700-mile coastline?
“It is, I suppose, an internationally recognized sea, but (to be honest), a situation like this has never come up before so I need to confirm the appropriate convention,” said Peter Bellerby, who said he was talking over the issue with the cartographers at his London company, Bellerby & Co. Globemakers. “If, for instance, he wanted to change the Atlantic Ocean to the American Ocean, we would probably just ignore it."
As of Wednesday night, map applications for Google and Apple still called the mountain and the gulf by their old names. Spokespersons for those platforms did not immediately respond to emailed questions.
A spokesperson for National Geographic, one of the most prominent map makers in the U.S., said this week that the company does not comment on individual cases and referred questions to a statement on its web site, which reads in part that it "strives to be apolitical, to consult multiple authoritative sources, and to make independent decisions based on extensive research.” National Geographic also has a policy of including explanatory notes for place names in dispute, citing as an example a body of water between Japan and the Korean peninsula, referred to as the Sea of Japan by the Japanese and the East Sea by Koreans.
In discussion on social media, one thread noted that the Sears Tower in Chicago was renamed the Willis Tower in 2009, though it's still commonly known by its original moniker. Pennsylvania's capital, Harrisburg, renamed its Market Street to Martin Luther King Boulevard and then switched back to Market Street several years later — with loud complaints both times. In 2017, New York's Tappan Zee Bridge was renamed for the late Gov. Mario Cuomo to great controversy. The new name appears on maps, but “no one calls it that,” noted another user.
“Are we going to start teaching this as the name of the body of water?” asked one Reddit poster on Tuesday.
“I guess you can tell students that SOME PEOPLE want to rename this body of water the Gulf of America, but everyone else in the world calls it the Gulf of Mexico,” came one answer. “Cover all your bases — they know the reality-based name, but also the wannabe name as well.”
Wrote another user: “I'll call it the Gulf of America when I'm forced to call the Tappan Zee the Mario Cuomo Bridge, which is to say never.”
FILE - President Donald Trump speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
FILE - Peter Bellerby, the founder of Bellerby & Co. Globemakers, holds a globe at a studio in London, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)
FILE - A boat is seen on the Susitna River near Talkeetna, Alaska, on Sunday, June 13, 2021, with Denali in the background. Denali, the tallest mountain on the North American continent, is located about 60 miles northwest of Talkeetna. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen, File)
FILE - The water in the Gulf of Mexico appears bluer than usual off of East Beach, Saturday, June 24, 2023, in Galveston, Texas. (Jill Karnicki/Houston Chronicle via AP, File)