Jackson Merrill's two homeruns push Padres past Phillies

SAN DIEGO -- Jackson Merrill seems to have broken out of his slump as he came up huge in the San Diego Padres' 5-4 win against the Philadelphia Phillies by connecting on two home runs at Petco Park on Saturday. 

The Phillies were the first to hop on the board after Alec Bohm was hit by a pitch to begin the second inning, and a wild pitch by San Diego starter Yu Darvish put Bohm in scoring position. Nick Castellanos came to the plate and smacked an RBI single on a full-count sweeper. J.T. Realmuto would follow that up a batter later with an RBI double that allowed Castellanos to score and put Philadelphia up early, 2-0. 

Merrill would make his presence known in the Padres' bottom half of the second as after Gavin Sheets hit a lead-off double, Merrill would connect on a fastball at the letters to tie the game at 2 for his first home run since May 27. Jake Cronenworth hit a double to follow up Merrill's long ball, and Martín Maldonado would put the Padres in front for the first time with an RBI single. 

Philidelphia capitalized on a rough beginning to Darvish's fifth inning as he had the bases loaded with Edmundo Sosa up at the plate, and he would regain the Phillies' lead after he delivered a RBI single that allowed two runners to score. 

Once again, Merrill came to the rescue in the bottom half of the sixth as he delivered another game-tying home run, this time a solo shot on a 2-2 fastball. With that second home run, Merrill became the first person to hit two home runs off Zack Wheeler in a single game since Buster Posey did it in 2021. 

Manny Machado would put this game to bed in the seventh as he would hit a go-ahead sacrifice fly that would allow Fernando Tatis Jr. to score and secure the Padres' 5-4 win and take the series altogether. 

The Padres look to secure the series sweep tomorrow as San Diego has Nick Pivetta lined up to take the mound against Cristopher Sánchez in the first half finale.