The Padres survived a nail-biter and took down the Rays 4-3 Sunday afternoon at Tropicana Field in a game that had everything a baseball fan could ask for.
From the long ball to small ball, from wild pitches to strikeouts the Padres (78-61) went down to the wire with Tampa Bay (67-69) and won the final game of the three-game series.
It was an early duel between starting pitchers Dylan Cease and Ryan Pepiot, with both arms shutting down their opposing offenses until center fielder Jackson Merrill cracked it open in the fourth inning.
After striking out earlier in the game on a high slider, Merrill made Pepiot pay for going upstairs again by barrelling up on an elevated fastball and taking it dead center for a two-run home run.
The Padres kept the fourth inning rally going, capitalizing on Pepiot’s two-strike mistakes to get two more men on and knocking the Rays starter out of the game. Shortstop Mason McCoy followed up with a sacrifice bunt to move the runners over and left fielder Jurickson Profar got the job done with a sacrifice fly to extend the lead to 3-0.
Cease (12-10, 3.62 ERA) was untouchable through the first five innings. His one-two punch of his slider and four-seam fastball was on full display, recording four strikeouts and allowing two hits on the day. Cease’s slider looked like a frisbee, attacking the back foot of lefty hitters and splitting the heart of the plate on righties.
The Georgia native recorded his 200th strikeout of the year and secured his fourth straight consecutive year with over 200 K’s.
Cease lost control in the sixth, throwing 10 straight balls to start the inning. After loading the bases with no outs, Cease was removed for reliever Jason Adam. Adam inherited three runners and all scored as a hit-by-pitch, double play and a wild pitch allowed the Rays to tie the game 3-3.
Despite the San Diego bats going cold after the fifth inning, their patience at the plate never wavered. The Friars were stubborn in the batters box, recording 10 walks on the day.
Infielder Jake Cronenworth started the ninth inning with a walks. Third baseman Manny Machado followed up with a good piece of hitting, letting a 97 mph sinker come to him and taking it away for a base hit, moving Cronenworth over to third.
With no outs and a man on third, infielder Xander Bogaerts fouled off multiple pitches he didn’t like then got the pitch he wanted, lifting a high fastball to center for a sac fly and taking the lead back 4-3.
“In the end it's the fight that we have,” Bogaerts said. “The determination, the will to want it a little bit more. It doesn’t matter what the score is…take it at bat by at bat, pitch by pitch.”
Bogaerts (.268 BA, .678 OPS) finished his day two for four with an RBI and a run scored.
Closer Robert Suarez came in to put the game away in the ninth, despite making things interesting allowing two men on. Suarez (8-2, 2.00 ERA) recorded his 30th save of the year and closed the door on the Rays.
San Diego returns to Petco Park to host the Tigers on Monday at 3:40 pm.