The San Diego Padres came from behind to beat St. Louis thanks to late heroics from Castellanos and Machado.
The San Diego Padres authored an impressive comeback win as a two-run homer by Nick Castellanos erased a 2-0 St. Louis Cardinals lead in the ninth inning, which set the stage for a 3-2 win on a sacrifice fly by Manny Machado with the bases loaded in the tenth. The win helped the Padres split their four-game series with the Cardinals after a day that was filled with offensive frustration until the late heroics started.
Starter Walker Buehler breezed through the first three innings, but the Cardinals scored first on a two-run homer by Jordan Walker in the fourth that brought home Alec Burleson after Burleson singled. That made it 2-0, but Buehler settled down and gave the Cardinals nothing after that, and overall this was a good start where he did a lot more than just keep the Padres in the game.
That lead was enough for Cardinals starter Kyle Leahy, who shut out the Padres through five innings. Reliever Ryne Stanek took the baton and threw a scoreless sixth, and JoJo Romero did the same for an inning and a third, with George Soriano coming on to get the last two outs of the eighth.
Riley O’Brien checked in to close things out, and that’s when disaster struck for the Cardinals. Xander Bogaerts got things started for the Padres with a single, but it looked like this one was over when Miguel Andujar and Ty France both struck out. That was when Nick Castellanos rescued San Diego with a two-run homer to left that tied the game at 2-2 to send it to extra innings.
The pitching stars of this one were relievers Jeremiah Estrada and Adrian Morejon. Estrada got things off to a great start by striking out the first two Cardinals hitters in the tenth, but manager Craig Stammen brought in Morejon when Estrada faltered and walked Masyn Winn. Morejon got Jose Fermin to pop out to first, and that set the stage for more drama in the bottom of the inning.
The Cardinals elected to walk Jackson Merrill to pitch to Fernando Tatis Jr., who managed to draw another walk after a couple of disastrous bunt attempts. Machado stepped up and wasted no time settling this one with a fly ball to center that was just deep enough to score ghost runner Ramon Laureano.
The Padres have had more than their share of impressive come-from-behind wins, and this was one of the best. It kept the Padres tied with the Los Angeles Dodgers at 24-16, and they’ll hit the road to play a three-game series with the Milwaukee Brewers that starts on Tuesday night.