SAN DIEGO — After starting the night with three straight strikeouts, then a ground out on the ninth pitch of the at bat, Fernando Tatis Jr. ‘did what the game called for’ and finished with his jersey ripped off in celebration.
The Padres right fielder drove home the winning run on an 0-1 slider off reliever Justin Anderson, securing the 3-2 San Diego win over the Chicago White Sox in 10 innings on Friday night at Petco Park.
“That’s just baseball,” Tatis said. “That’s why it’s so special, that’s why it’s so hard and I’m happy it’s coming along.”
It was the second time this season and in his career Tatis emptied the Brown and Gold bench with a walk-off.
“The grace, the clarity in (Tatis’s) approach, very calm (and) under control, not trying to do much,” said manager Mike Shildt. “I don’t think he was seeing the ball good tonight, and to go do that and win the game, speaks volumes for Tatis — I think that was a complete, professional evening.”
San Diego (88-66) didn’t appear they’d need heroics until Chicago (36-118) tied the game with a two-run home run in the ninth. Gavin Sheets fought off three pitches with two strikes, working a nine pitch walk that set Lenyn Sosa up to grind Robert Suarez to his ninth pitch when he crushed the long ball to left field on a full count.
It was eerily similar to 15 days ago when Suarez gave up a grand slam to Detroit — to nearly the exact same spot, one strike away from a win.
“I think it’s location,” Suarez said in Spanish through a translator. “That last pitch that he hit out kind of leaked over the middle.”
Shildt said his concern with Suarez is “not very high", because he knows Suarez has additional pitches he can mix in. Suarez said he has been working on his fastball, his changeup and his slider.
Despite the sixth blown save of the season by the Padres closer, Adrian Morejon (who earned the win, 3-2, 2.93 ERA) and the defense held Chicago scoreless in the tenth to set the table. Tyler Wade, who pinch ran for Donovan Solano in the ninth, took a chopper at second with one gone and threw out ghost-runner Bryan Ramos at home.
Through the first four innings it was all about the men on the mound, as Padres starter Joe Musgrove struck out eight and allowed two hits, while White Sox starter Garrett Crochet matched him with one hits against and eight Ks.
Musgrove matched his season-high with his ninth strikeout of the night on his 93rd pitch. He finished with six shutout innings pitched and allowed four hits with no walks, and has thrown seven-or-more strikeouts in his last three starts and four of his last five.
Crochet threw just the four innings, with one hit allowed and no walks to go with his octet of strikeouts.
It wasn’t until Crochet left the game and Gus Varland was on the hill in the sixth that San Diego‘s offense broke the scoreless deadlock. The two out rally got started when Jurickson Profar worked a ten-pitch at bat and singled sharply out to right field, then Manny Machado singled and stole second.
With Jackson Merrill at the plate and the infield shifted towards first base, Profar took a large lead off third that prompted a meeting at the mound between the pitcher and catcher. After taking a ball, Merrill hit a looping fly that fell in front of the center fielder to plate the first two Padres runs of the evening.
“Jackson with two strikes, you know, it's a bad square on you as a pitcher, and then (Merrill) found some pasture and (took) two runs there,” Shildt said.
Chicago had runners in scoring position in four separate regulation innings, but each time San Diego found a way out.
In the first, Musgrove fanned Andrew Vaughn with a man on third to end the threat. A two-out double by Vaughn in the fourth was left in place with a flyout, and a one-out sixth inning double by Nicky Lopez stayed stuck in place with a fly out and another Vaughn strikeout.
With Jason Adam on the hill in the eighth, Korey Lee led off with a double, but after a strikeout got caught in between on a grounder to the left of the mound by Lopez and was tagged out in the rundown 1-6-5.
San Diego’s magic number to qualify for the postseason dropped to three, as the Braves and Mets both lost.
The Padres will send Martín Peréz (4-5, 4.36 ERA) to the hill on Saturday against Chris Flexen (2-14, 5.04 ERA) for Chicago for the 5:40 p.m. first pitch at Petco Park.