SAN DIEGO (Ticker) -- Xavier Nady 's early play may help land him a full-time role.

Nady posted his first career four-hit game and Woody Williams tossed six serviceable innings and added two hits as the San Diego Padres posted an 11-3 triumph over the Pittsburgh Pirates .

Given the starting job in center field while Dave Roberts recovers from a groin strain, Nady is making the most of the opportunity. Entering with two multi-hit performances in his first four games, including a two-homer effort in the season opener at Colorado, Nady went 4-for-5 with an RBI triple in the seventh inning and a three-run blast in the eighth.

"It felt good. I knew I hit it well," Nady said. "I'm still trying to work on some things that will transfer into having success every day at this level. We were fortunate enough to get a couple of runs early, and it's contagious."

"He looks good up there," Padres manager Bruce Bochy said. "He worked hard this winter and had a good spring and has continued it from there. To be honest, I'm not surprised."

The late-inning display helped seal the win for Williams (1-0), who allowed three runs, five hits and a walk with six strikeouts. In his first home start since returning to San Diego as a free agent this offseason, the veteran righthander also helped himself at the plate with a run-scoring single in the fourth that snapped a 1-1 tie.

"It's always nice to contribute with the bat," said Williams, who also led off the third with a single and scored three batters later. "I felt good out there (on the mound). I was just trying to be aggressive, and that worked out. The command still wasn't there, and it's got to get better."

Scott Linebrink , Akinori Otsuka and Darrell May each tossed a scoreless inning to preserve the win.

Phil Nevin belted a three-run homer in the fifth that gave San Diego the lead for good and Mark Loretta collected three hits for the Padres, who had scored just three runs in their previous two home games. San Diego did not reach double figures in runs in the inaugural year of Petco Park in 2004 until August 6, also against Pittsburgh.

"I've said the last two days that it might take a breakout game for us here at home to feel good about ourselves here," Nevin said. "Hopefully, this was it."

"We were having trouble scoring runs here, no question about it," Bochy admitted. "But we knew we'd get going eventually, it was just a matter of when. Tonight, we got some great at-bats off a tough pitcher."

Pittsburgh's Oliver Perez (0-2) was roughed up for the second time in as many starts this season. The lefthander yielded five runs and six hits in four-plus innings, walking five and striking out four.

On Opening Day against Milwaukee, Perez was tagged for six runs and five hits in five innings.

"There's no excuse," said Perez, who suffered from shoulder stiffness in spring training. "I'm always trying to do my best and, right now, I'm not in the situation I need to be in. So I have to work quickly to get there."

"He's just not sharp yet," Pirates manager Lloyd McClendon said. "He missed 12 days of spring training. He's playing catch-up, but we're not going to give up on him."

Matt Lawton accounted for Pittsburgh's offense, delivering an RBI double in the third inning and adding a two-run single with two outs in the fifth that gave the Pirates a 3-2 lead.

"When you get those two-out RBIs like (Lawton) did tonight, you expect to win," McClendon said. "Unfortunately, we didn't get the pitching tonight."

Pittsburgh has scored just 10 runs in its first five games.

"The ballclub has been struggling to score runs," Lawton said. "We haven't been playing the best baseball, but it's still early."