Jose Iglesias tied the game with a two-run, two-out, bases-loaded pinch-hit single in the seventh inning and then drove in the winning run with a grounder in the ninth for the Padres, who beat the Kansas City Royals 3-2 on Sunday in San Diego to take two of three in the series.

Iglesias hit a soft bouncer to shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., who fielded it, spun around and threw home too late to get Luis Arraez, whose head-first slide beat the throw.

Arraez started the decisive rally with a single off Daniel Lynch IV (3-2) and took third on Xander Bogaerts’ double. John Schreiber came on and allowed Iglesias’ grounder.

Robert Suarez (2-3) worked the ninth. He is appealing his three-game suspension for hitting Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani on Thursday night.

Salvador Perez hit a two-run homer for the Royals and phenom Jac Caglianone leaped and got his glove over the right-field wall to rob Jackson Merrill of a two-run home run in the eighth.

Seth Lugo, who pitched for the Padres in 2023, was brilliant in retiring 18 straight batters after allowing Fernando Tatis’ leadoff single.

The Padres finally broke through when Merrill, who returned from the seven-day concussion injured list, doubled into the right-field corner leading off the seventh. Lugo retired Manny Machado and made way for Angel Zerpa, who issued consecutive two-out walks.

Iglesias, pinch-hitting for left-hander Jake Cronenworth, hit an opposite-field single to right, and he tripped and fell breaking out of the box.

Perez lined a 1-0 pitch from Randy Vásquez 412 feet into the left-field stands to break a scoreless tie in the sixth.

ANGELS NOTES

Jack Kochanowicz will start tonight’s series opener against the Boston Red Sox, giving the Angels right-hander another chance to try out his new toy, a one-seam changeup that he leaned heavily on in last Wednesday’s 5 1/3-inning, two-hit, two-run, eight-strikeout effort in a 3-2 win over the New York Yankees.

“I was definitely happy with the way it was coming out,” said Kochanowicz, who induced seven of his 12 swinging strikes in Yankee Stadium with his changeup. “When you’re getting swings like that, you know it’s working.”

Pitching coach Barry Enright suggested the grip change — one that helps Kochanowicz get the same spin on his changeup that he does on his 96-mph sinker — before a June 13 game in Baltimore in which Kochanowicz allowed two runs before a fifth-inning rain delay ended his night.

The result is a changeup that not only sinks but fades away from left-handed hitters, who are batting .305 with a .937 OPS and 13 homers in 200 plate appearances against Kochanowicz this season. The 24-year-old has held right-handed hitters to a .254 average, .665 OPS and two homers in 137 plate appearances.

“I think it will be a good weapon–having something to go away (from left-handed hitters) is huge,” Kochanowicz said. “The changeup I was throwing before, it was going down, but it didn’t have that traditional fade to it. I wanted more horizontal movement.”

Kochanowicz averaged 90.9 mph on the 18 changeups he threw in New York, up from the 89.7 mph he averaged on the pitch in his first 14 starts.

One was a 94-mph changeup that struck out reigning American League most valuable player Aaron Judge in the first inning, a pitch Statcast identified as a sinker but Kochanowicz said was a changeup.

Ideally, Kochanowicz would like to keep his changeup in the 90-mph range to differentiate it more from his sinker and 96-mph four-seamer.

“I saw that — it surprised me, definitely,” Kochanowicz said of his 94-mph “off-speed” pitch to Judge. “I think I was just fired up for the at-bat. He’s the best hitter in the world.”

— Mike DiGiovanna

RALEIGH ON A ROLL

Cal Raleigh has a major league-leading 31 homers after he helped the Seattle Mariners take two of three against the Chicago Cubs over the weekend. The switch hitter went deep four times and drove in six runs in the series.

The 28-year-old Mariners’ catcher, was the DH on Sunday when he had two hits, walked twice and scored three runs in Seattle’s 14-6 victory. He is batting .327 (37 for 113) with 16 homers and 34 RBIs in his last 29 games.