The high-leverage arms in the San Diego Padres bullpen of Bradgley Rodriguez, Adrian Morejon and Mason Miller needed a day to sit and watch a game without having to warmup and without having to come into the game to protect and/or save another one-run game. Jackson Merrill gave them that day with a 4-for-5 performance at the plate with two home runs, a triple and six RBI to lead the Padres to a 9-2 win and series sweep over the Washington Nationals at Petco Park on Thursday.
Merrill made his first
impact in game in the bottom of the third inning with San Diego trailing Washington, 2-1 with runners at first and second with two outs. Merrill drove a ball to center field that caused Nationals center fielder Jacob Young to crash into the wall before he could make the catch near the 396 marker. The ball bounced off the wall and rolled back toward the infield as Merrill raced into third base with a two-run triple to give the Padres a 3-2 lead.
The young star struck again in the bottom of the fifth inning with San Diego leading, 5-2. Merrill connected on an opposite field two-run home run to put the Padres up 7-2. He later added a second home run to lead off the bottom of the seventh inning to give San Diego and 8-2 lead. For good measure, Merrill ripped a ball toward first base in the bottom of the eighth inning and Washington first baseman Andres Chaparro was unable to make a play and the ball rolled into right field to give the Padres their final run of the game and a 9-2 lead en route to the win.
Walker Buehler started on the mound for San Diego and turned in his worst start in recent memory. Padres manager Craig Stammen went out to the mound in the third inning with Buehler struggling to locate his pitches after he retired the first six Nationals in order, four of which were strikeouts. Buehler then allowed a leadoff home run to Keibert Ruiz to put Washington up, 1-0. Buehler then allowed a walk to Nasim Nunez, a single to Young and another walk to James Wood to load the bases. The right-hander induced a line drive to right field off the bat of Dylan Crews which should have been caught, but Jase Bowen fell trying to make a play on the ball and it dropped in for an RBI single to put the Nationals ahead 2-0 with the bases still loaded and no outs.
Buehler got Chaparro to pop out for the first out of the top of the third inning, but then Stammen went out to talk to his pitcher. Buehler had apparently convinced Stammen to let him stay in the game and as the manager started to walk away from the mound he was advised that was the team’s second visit to the mound in the inning and he would have to make a pitching change. Kyle Hart had been warming and was able to come into the game and record a strikeout and a fly out to end the threat and the inning, but Buehler’s day was over after 2.1 innings pitched with two runs allowed on three hits with two walks and four strikeouts.
The remainder of the game was handled like a “pitching chaos” bullpen game for San Diego. Hart completed 2.1 innings and was followed by David Morgan who worked 0.1 inning. Yuki Matsui pitched a scoreless sixth inning and Wandy Peralta threw two scoreless innings in the seventh and eighth. Griffin Canning was called on for the top of the ninth inning and he retired the Washington batters in order on 11 pitches to close out the game.
The Padres have an off day today, but will return to action on the road against the San Francisco Giants for a three-game series at Oracle Park starting Friday at 7:15 p.m.
Padres News:
- Randy Vasquez has had an up and down season, but he will now be asked to find stability as a bullpen piece after Nick Pivetta returned to the rotation for San Diego.
- Miguel Andujar has been on the IL for a significant amount of time, but after very few updates on his progress, he has started his rehab and will try to get back to the Padres for the final weeks of the season.
- After designating catcher Blake Hunt for assignment, the Padres released him on Wednesday.
Baseball News:
- The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Chicago Cubs and moved 10 games ahead of their rival in the NL Central standings.
- The Philadelphia Phillies got a comeback win over the Houston Astros.
- The Atlanta Braves got beat 7-2 by the Tampa Bay Rays in Reynaldo Lopez’s return to the rotation.
- The New York Mets won a shootout with the Miami Marlins, 15-14.
- The San Francisco Giants scored six runs in the eighth inning to complete a sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals.
- The Arizona Diamondbacks fell out of the third NL Wild Card spot with a 5-2 loss to the Kansas City Royals.
