The San Diego Padres needed a win to take the series against the Giants, and they came up big yet again.
The San Diego Padres won another tight one against the San Francisco Giants, 5-4, as they got ahead early and held on without closer Mason Miller.
The Padres raced out to a four-run lead in the second inning off Giants starter Landen Roupp, with the key blow being a two-run homer from Jackson Merrill to get San Diego off to a 2-0 lead. Jake Cronenworth then continued his clutch hitting with a two run single to double the margin which held up until the fourth inning.
The Giants struck back in the fourth off JP Sears, who was working in relief in this one after Kyle Hart opened the game with three shutout innings. The first run in the rally was driven in by Willy Adames with an RBI single, and a Drsounew Cavanaugh groundout got Rafael Devers home to cut the Padres lead in half at 4-2.
Osleivis Basabe struck again in the fifth with his second homer in two games, this one off reliever Griffin Canning. But the Padres got that run back on an RBI single from Luis Campusano to up San Diego’s lead to 5-3.
Jeremiah Estrada stepped up with a scoreless seventh after Canning left, and Bradgley Rodriguez come on for the eighth. He gave up a solo homer to Devers to cut the lead to one, and the inning nearly turned into a disaster when the Padres threw the ball around afer a Jung Hoo Lee double and he wound up at third.
But Adrian Morejon came on to strike out Adames to hold the lead, and Morejon stayed on to pitch the ninth with Mason Miller unavailable after a long appearance the night before. Morejon struck out the first two hitters, then hit Basabe with a pitch, but he got the putaway out on a Luis Arraez flyball to Merrill in left-center .
The win gave the Padres a necessary series victory as they won five out of six in this homestand. The Padres have now won eight of nine as they continue to hang in the wild-card race, and their paper-thin pitching staff continues to hang together.
It won’t get any easier from here. The Padres now head Arizona for a crucial four-game series against the Diamondbacks, who now sit a game ahead of them in the NL West standings and the wild-card race.
The Padres will now wait to see if they get pitching reinforcements tonight and tomorrow before the trade deadline officially hits, as what has become a fascinating season continues to unfold in dramatic fashion.
