Better late than never is how the saying goes and the San Diego Padres proved that when they scored six runs over the sixth, seventh and eighth innings to come from behind to beat the Minnesota Twins, 7-5 at Petco Park on Saturday night.
San Diego found itself in a hole early when starter Casey Mize allowed three solo home runs over the first two innings, to give Minnesota a 3-0 lead. Jackson Merrill responded in the bottom of the second inning with a solo home run of his own to make the score 3-1,
but then trouble came. Mize injured his ankle walking down the dugout steps after the top of the second inning. He returned to the mound in the top of the third but was not able to finish the inning. Mize got the first two outs before allowing a double to Ryan Jeffers, but was then taken out of the game by manager Craig Stammen. Kyle Hart came on to pitch and immediately allowed an RBI-single to put the Twins up 4-1 before he got a groundout to end the inning.
Minnesota added another run in the top of the fifth and San Diego was staring at a 5-1 deficit after four innings with their bulk-inning reliever Griffin Canning on the mound. The scored remained the same through the top of the fifth before the Padres added a run on an RBI-single from Merrill to make the score 5-2 after six innings.
San Diego came to life in the seventh inning after a catcher’s interference call allowed Freddy Fermin to reach base with one out. Fernando Tatis Jr. followed with a single to put two runners on and Jake Cronenworth shot a double down the left field line. Fermin scored from second and Tatis raced all the was around from first base to cut the deficit to 5-4. Manny Machado hit a ground ball to shortstop and Kaelen Culpepper tried to throw to third to get Cronenworth who was advancing from second base, but his throw sailed past Brooks Lee at third base and Cronenworth was able to score to tie the game at 5-5. Machado was able to advance to second, which allowed him to score when Ty France hit an RBI-single to give the Padres a 6-5 lead.
Those were all the runs San Diego needed to get the win thanks to scoreless innings from Adrian Morejon and Mason Miller, but the Padres tacked on an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth inning when Tatis hit a one-out RBI-single to score Luis Campusano to put San Diego ahead, 7-5. Morejon and Miller faced the minimum three batters each in their respective innings of work and Miller notched his 32nd save of the season.
San Diego will look to sweep Minnesota when the teams meet for the final game of the series today at 1:10 p.m.
Padres News:
- Fernando Tatis Jr. is finally showing himself to be the player the Friars Faithful thought he would be coming into the season.
- Nick Pivetta’s player option for 2027 has converted to a team option now that he has spent more than 130 days on the IL.
- Lamar King Jr. helped the Fort Wayne TinCaps get a walk-off win.
Baseball News:
- Dylan Cease deals the Toronto Blue Jays past the New York Yankees.
- The Milwaukee Brewers got another win over the Atlanta Braves.
- Randy Arozarena does it all to help the Seattle Mariners beat the Chicago Cubs.
- Tarik Skubal got 11 strikeouts to lead the Los Angeles Dodgers to a win over the Pittsburgh Pirates.
- JJ Bleday hit for the cycle and the Cincinnati Reds beat the Arizona Diamondbacks.
- The Philadelphia Phillies extended their win streak to eight games with a dominant win over the St. Louis Cardinals.
