Padres Clinch Top Wild Card Spot With 10-7 Win Over Arizona
· Yahoo Sports
The San Diego Padres finished off their late-season surge with a 10-7 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks, with the win locking them into the top wild-card spot and giving the Padres home field advantage in a playoff rematch against the Chicago Cubs.
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The game was a slugfest that featured plenty of hitting and some strange plays. The two teams traded runs in the first two innings, but the scoring started in earnest in the middle innings with the game tied at 1-1.
The Diamondbacks took the lead in the third on an RBI single from GAbriel Moreno in the third, but the Padres came back to take a 3-2 lead on an RBI groundout from Ty France and a pop-fly double from Gavin Sheets that Arizona center fielder Tim Tawa lost completely in the twilight sky as his teammates raced toward him to try to mitigate the damage.
But James McCann brought Arizona back with a two-run homer in the fourth to make it 4-3, as Padres starter Walker Buehler wound up having a short night.
Manny Machado struck the big blow in San Diego’s half of the inning, though, with a three-run homer to put the Padres on top, 6-4, and the Padres broke the game open the next inning.
Xander Bogaerts started the scoring with a solo homer, and an RBI groundout by Fernando Tatis Jr. brought home a second run. That doubled up the score at 8-4, and Jake Cronenworth added a pair of insurance runs with a two-run single to up the lead to 10-4.
The game wasn’t quite over, however. The Diamondbacks put a scare into the situation in the ninth off closer Mason Miller, who struggled with his control. He walked Geraldo Perdomo with the bases loaded to bring home a run, and Corbin Carroll added an RBI groundout to score another.
An RBI single from Nolan Arenado plated yet another, but Miller was finally able to end his 24-pitch adventure and put the final score of 10-7 in the books.
The Padres schedule is now carved in stone going forward, but the opposite is true for Arizona. They own the tie-breaker over the flailing Philadelphia Phillies, and a Diamondbacks win in the series finale combined with a Phillies loss would put them in the playoffs as the third wild-card team.
The Padres, meanwhile, will be able to rest as many players as possible while setting their rotation and bullpen order for what promises to be another very competitive encounter with the Chicago Cubs.