Jose Iglesias, Jackson Merrill hit home runs as Padres beat Giants again, 5-1

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Jose Iglesias hit a two-run homer in the second inning, Jackson Merrill connected in the eighth for insurance, and the San Diego Padres beat the struggling San Francisco Giants 5-1 on Tuesday night.

San Diego moved into a first-place tie with the Dodgers in the NL West race after Los Angeles lost to the Angels in 10 innings — a position Padres manager Mike Shildt expected his club to be for the season's stretch run.

Jake Croneworth contributed an RBI single in the fourth and Jason Adam (8-3) worked out of a bases-loaded jam by getting the final two outs of the sixth for the win.

The Padres took a lead in the first getting Manny Machado's two-out single followed by a double from Xander Bogaerts before Robbie Ray (9-6) was called for a balk that brought home the first run.

San Francisco — which lost for the 12th time in 13 home games — tied it on Wilmer Flores' two-out single in the bottom half. Heliot Ramos broke a bat over his knee in frustration in the second following strikeouts in consecutive at-bats.

The Giants dropped their fourth straight game and Ray's winless stretch reached seven starts since beating Arizona on July 3 in Phoenix. The lefty allowed four runs on seven hits over six innings, struck out four and walked one.

San Diego's Nestor Cortes struck out six with one walk while giving up one run and six hits in 4 2/3 innings.

San Francisco's Dominic Smith extended his career-best hitting streak to 15 games with a pinch-hit single to load the bases in the sixth and chase David Morgan.

The Padres secured their season-best fifth straight winning series and improved to 8-1-2 over their last 11 series dating to July 4-6 against Texas.

RHP Nick Pivetta (11-4, 2.94 ERA) pitches the series finale for San Diego, while the Giants send RHP Kai-Wei Teng (1-1, 5.40) to the mound for his second start and third appearance of 2025.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB

Robbie Ray (38) reacts after giving up a two-run homerun in the second inning as the San Francisco Giants played the San Diego Padres at Oracle Park in San Francisco, on Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025.(Carlos Avila Gonzalez/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

San Francisco Giants' Heliot Ramos throws his bat after popping out against the San Diego Padres during the sixth inning of a baseball game in San Francisco, Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Casey Scmitt (10) safe at second on a double in the first inning as the San Francisco Giants played the San Diego Padres at Oracle Park in San Francisco, on Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025.(Carlos Avila Gonzalez/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

San Diego Padres first baseman Luis Arraez, right, reacts after catching a pop out hit by San Francisco Giants' Heliot Ramos (17) during the sixth inning of a baseball game in San Francisco, Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

San Diego Padres' Manny Machado hugs teammate Jose Iglesias (7) after he hit a two-run homerun in the second inning of a baseball game against the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park in San Francisco, on Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025. (Carlos Avila Gonzalez/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

NEWARK, Del.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan 15, 2026--

QPS Holdings, LLC (QPS), an award-winning contract research organization (CRO) focused on bioanalysis and clinical trials announces the successful implementation of Oracle Argus, a premier pharmacovigilance system designed to support comprehensive safety case management for clinical trials.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260115711485/en/

The adoption of the Oracle Argus drug safety platform underscores QPS’s commitment to advancing patient safety, regulatory compliance, and operational excellence across its clients’ clinical drug development programs. Integrating this industry-standard safety platform strengthens QPS’ ability to capture, manage, and report adverse events in accordance with global regulatory requirements.

“Ensuring patient safety and data integrity is at the heart of what we do when conducting clinical trials,” said Derek Grimes, Executive Vice President of QPS. “Oracle Argus provides us with a robust, scalable solution to support the growing needs of our customer’s clinical trial portfolios and the evolving expectations of regulatory authorities worldwide.”

“Oracle Argus provides QPS Holdings, LLC with a trusted, globally recognized drug safety platform that supports compliance with stringent pharmacovigilance standards and regulations, while streamlining end-to-end safety operations and insights at scale,” said Seema Verma, executive vice president and general manager, Oracle Health and Life Sciences. “With our industry-leading solutions, QPS Holdings, LLC can further transform and elevate its safety case management for customers worldwide.”

The deployment of Oracle Argus will enable QPS to:

As the demand for innovative therapies continues to rise, CROs play a critical role in managing both development speed and patient safety. By leveraging the Oracle Argus platform, QPS is well-positioned to deliver on its mission to accelerate pharmaceutical breakthroughs across the globe by delivering custom-built research services.

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ABOUT QPS HOLDINGS, LLC

QPS is a global, full-service, GLP/GCP-compliant contract research organization (CRO) delivering the highest grade of discovery, bioanalysis, preclinical and clinical drug development services. Since 1995, QPS has grown from a small bioanalysis shop into a full-service CRO with 1,200+ employees in the US, Europe, Asia and India. Today, QPS offers expanded pharmaceutical contract R&D services with special expertise in pharmacology, DMPK, toxicology, bioanalysis, translational medicine, PBMC processing, central safety labs, clinical trials, and clinical research services. An award-winning leader focused on bioanalysis and clinical trials, QPS is known for proven quality standards, technical expertise, a flexible approach to research, client satisfaction, turnkey laboratories, Phase I/II clinical units, and multi-site clinical research services. For more information, visit http://www.qps.com or email info@qps.com.

ABOUT ORACLE ARGUS

Oracle Argus is an industry-leading, trusted solution for processing, analyzing, and reporting adverse event cases originating in pre-market and post-market drugs, biologics, vaccines, devices, and combination products. Oracle has been a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Life Science R&D Pharmacovigilance Technology Solutions and Consulting Services 2025 Vendor Assessment (doc # US53669225, July 2025). To learn more about Oracle’s pharmacovigilance portfolio visit: https://www.oracle.com/life-sciences/safety-solutions/argus-safety-case-management/. Trademarks: Oracle, Java, MySQL and NetSuite are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation.

Derek Grimes, EVP, Global Head of Clinical Research at QPS Holdings, LLC.