Josh Hader closes out Padres' first three-game sweep of season
The Padres’ Jake Cronenworth congratulates Manny Machado after Machado’s home run against the Angels during the sixth inning Wednesday night at Petco Park.
The Padres found relief Wednesday.
And they swept a three-game series for the first time this season.
Manny Machado drove in three runs, including one with a long homer that set a Petco Park record, and a back-and-forth night ended with Josh Hader closing out his third game in the series as the Padres held on for a 5-3 victory over the Angels.
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“We played good baseball overall all week, competed, and that’s what it’s going to take to get to where we want to get to,” Machado said. “We’ve got to continue doing that every single day. Just got to continue playing good defense, pitchers gotta keep throwing the ball like they’ve been doing. We’ve got to just put up some runs for them to close out the game. … We keep doing that, we’re gonna be in a good place.”
The bullpen allowed a run that lost a lead again, but after the Padres went up for a third time, Tom Cosgrove pitched a perfect eighth inning and Hader worked a scoreless ninth for his 20th save.
It was Hader’s first time working three days in a row since 2021.
“Every game is important,” Hader said. “It’s a big series for us to get a sweep. … I think all that kind of factors in. But I think at the end of the day, I felt good enough that I was able to go three, so I think that’s basically all it came down to.”
The three consecutive victories by the Padres (41-46) comprises their first streak that long since June 7-10. They are off Thursday before hosting the Mets for three games in the final series before the All-Star break. They will begin what is traditionally considered the season’s “second half” on July 14 in Philadelphia.
“We’re trying to get to where we were last year, and that’s in the playoffs,” Hader said. “Obviously, we struggled early on. But every game, every series matters. ... So (the Angels series was) a great momentum build. Take it into this weekend against the Mets, at least finish this first half on a great note and then pick it back up when we get back.”
The Padres’ struggles for so much of this season have owed to an inconsistent offense. Of late, however, they have been undone by a previously dependable bullpen.
Even as the Padres scored 18 runs in their two victories to start the week, there had been some tense moments. And their bullpen entered Wednesday’s game having allowed at least three runs in nine consecutive games, the longest such streak in franchise history.
Machado gave the Padres a 3-2 lead with his homer in the sixth inning. The 108.7 mph blast bounced off the ribbon board below the second deck and put him in the record books as Petco Park’s all-time home run leader, his 66th home run in the ballpark passing the 65 hit by Adrián González with the Padres (57), Dodgers (seven) and Mets (one).
“It’s a big accomplishment and something that’s going to be in the books forever,” Machado said after the game. “So it’s an honor to be up there.”
On the first pitch of the seventh inning, Nick Martinez grooved a fastball in the center of the zone that Matt Thaiss ripped a projected 424 feet to right-center field to tie the game 3-3. It was the sixth time in the past 16 games that a Padres reliever let a lead slip away.
Martinez finished the seventh, and the Padres took the lead again in the bottom of the inning on Fernando Tatis Jr.’s one-out double and two walks (one intentional) that loaded the bases before Xander Boagerts’ groundout scored Tatis.
Machado’s bases-loaded walk in the eighth inning brought in the final run.
Half the runs scored Wednesday did so on something other than a hit.
The Angels led 2-1 before either team had really done much besides go along with a strange series of events.
The teams traded gifts early.
The Padres took a 1-0 lead in the first inning without doing much besides taking pitches and drawing a pickoff attempt.
Tatis’ one-out single was the only hit in the inning. But Juan Soto followed with a walk, and Bogaerts followed Machado’s pop out with another walk to load the bases. With Jake Cronenworth at the plate with a 2-1 count, Angels pitcher Patrick Sandoval turned to throw to second, but his throw to try to get Soto sailed wide and into center field, allowing Tatis to score. Jake Cronenworth grounded into a fielder’s choice on the next pitch.
The Angels tied the game in the second with help from Tatis’ first error since May 24, a span of 36 games.
Lugo struck out the first two batters he faced in the second before Hunter Renfroe lined a double to right-center field and Matt Theiss walked. Luis Rengifo followed with a single to right field that Tatis fielded as Renfroe was held up at third. But Tatis dropped the ball as he transferred it from his glove to his hand, prompting Renfroe to run home.
It was not an error but a bit of good fortune that helped the Angels to a lead in the third.
Lugo followed Mickey Moniak’s leadoff single by getting Eduardo Escobar and Shohei Ohtani on groundouts to second base, which moved Moniak 90 feet at a time to third base. And the La Costa Canyon High School grad scored when Jo Adell chopped a ball down the third base line that was veering left as it traveled toward the bag. But it bounced on the outside (foul side) of the bag and careened down the line and toward the side wall, and Adell ended up on second base with an RBI double.
The game was tied 2-2 a half-inning later when Ha-Seong Kim led of the bottom of the third with a walk, stole second, went to third on Soto’s groundout to the right side and scored on Machado’s single.
“We got a combination of pretty much everything tonight,” Melvin said. “So this is really good win for us all the way around. You know, whether it was defense, stole a base, opportunistic, made guys work, made relievers work, added on in seventh and eighth, two big runs in those innings, which had been a little bit of a problem for us. We won some games here with offense recently. Today, it was total team effort.”
Source: The San Diego Union-Tribune
