It was the offensive explosion fans of the San Diego Padres have been waiting for all season. It was a glimpse at what the Friar Faithful thought this lineup could be with big-name stars scattered throughout the order. It was good to see. Jackson Merrill, Manny Machado, Gavin Sheets, Samad Taylor and Rodolfo Duran all hit home runs to lead the Padres to a 9-3 over the Baltimore Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
Fernando Tatis Jr. opened the game with a leadoff walk but was not on base long.
Merrill followed and hit the fourth pitch of his at-bat over the wall in left-center field to give San Diego a 2-0 lead. Xander Bogaerts drew a one-out walk before Sheets popped out for the second out of the inning. Taylor came to the plate and hit a two-run home run on the fifth pitch of his at-bat to give the Padres a 4-0 lead.
Randy Vasquez took the mound for San Diego and immediately surrendered two runs in the bottom of the first inning. Both runs were scored with two outs with the first Baltimore coming on a Pete Alonso home run. The Orioles scored their second run of the inning when Vasquez allowed a walk and a triple to the next two batters to make the score 4-2.
Taylor added an RBI-single in the top of the fifth inning, which scored Machado to give the Padres a 5-2 lead. Nick Solak, who was called up after Miguel Andujar was placed on the IL, hit a sacrifice fly later in the inning to extend the San Diego lead to 6-2. Gavin Sheets made the score 7-2 with a solo home run in the top of the seventh inning before the Baltimore added a run in the bottom of the seventh to make the score 7-3.
Rodolfo Duran and Manny Machado hit solo home runs in the top of the eighth and top of the ninth innings to make the final score 9-3 and give the Padres a chance to win the series in the final game against the Orioles.
Vasquez completed five innings and allowed two runs on six hits with two walks and five strikeouts. Yuki Matsui pitched a scoreless sixth, Bradgley Rodriguez allowed a run in the seventh, Jason Adam pitched a scoreless eighth and Ron Marinaccio pitched 0.2 innings before being ejected following a hit batter, which led to manager Craig Stammen being ejected and Adrian Morejon got the final out of the game for the Padres.
San Diego takes on Baltimore in the rubber match today at 10:35 a.m.
Padres News:
- The Padres got beat up in the win. Xander Bogaerts was hit in the head by a pitch in his first game back from paternity leave and was later taken out of the game and Freddy Fermin was hit on the side of his head behind his ear while warming up Yuki Matsui before the sixth inning and he too left the game early with an injury.
- German Marquez had another scoreless outing his latest rehab start and will be ready soon to contribute to San Diego’s succes.
Baseball News:
- Yoshinobu Yamamoto was almost perfect for the Los Angeles Dodgers in their 7-1 win over the Chicago White Sox.
- The Detroit Tigers suffered a 3-1 loss to the Cleveland Guardians in Tarik Skubal’s return to the mound. But it was not all good news for the Guardians as they saw their third baseman Jose Ramirez end up on the IL with an injury to his hamate bone.
- The Philadelphia Phillies took advantage of not facing Jacob Misiorowski and beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 9-8.
- The Atlanta Braves bounced back to beat the New York Mets, 3-1.
