The San Diego Padres saw the Chicago Cubs beat the St. Louis Cardinals and clinch homefield advantage for their upcoming Wild Card Series before they ever took the field against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
If anyone thought that meant the Padres were going to take it easy and cruise into the playoff matchup with the Cubs, they were proven wrong by the time the first three hitters had come to the plate for San Diego. The Padres scored three first inning runs and five runs total over the first two innings, and that was all they would need en route to a 5-1 win at Petco Park, Saturday.
Fernando Tatis Jr. led off the bottom of the first inning with a towering solo home run that landed in the top basket of the Western Metal Supply Company building to give the Padres a 1-0 lead.
Luis Arraez followed with a single and Xander Bogaerts showed off his power with a two-run home run that landed in the top basket as well to stake San Diego to a 3-0 lead before the first out was recorded in the inning.
That was all the scoring the Padres would need because a combination of Michael King, Yuki Matsui, Adrian Morejon, Mason Miller, Jeremiah Estrada and Robert Suarez combined to allow one run on five hits with four walks and 12 strikeouts through nine innings.
The one run allowed by Padres pitching came off Matsui in the top of the fifth inning, but only after Elias Diaz put San Diego up 5-0 with a two-run homer in the bottom of the second inning.
That Padres will finish regular season play looking to sweep the Diamondbacks, Sunday at 12:10 p.m.
