SAN DIEGO – Ramón Laureano has done a bit of everything since being acquired at the trade deadline, and on Saturday night he delivered the walk-off RBI single in the San Diego Padres 5-4 win over the Boston Red Sox.
The left fielder’s 10th hit and eighth RBI in Brown and Gold plated Xander Bogaerts, who had a strong night as well with pairs of hits, runs and RBIs with a home run.
"(Laureano's a) good player, another good player we added and clearly has helped us," said manager Mike Shildt. "Takes tough at bats, is good against righties, is just a good player and a tough player, and he's done a nice job in the outfield as well... He's a good player with a good approach, he's a winning guy."
It was the sixth walk-off win of the season from San Diego (65-52), who were able to bounce-back from a late Red Sox (65-53) rally.
Robert Suarez couldn’t nail down the save for the second time in his last four opportunities, as Ceddanne Rafaela led off with an infield single and stole second, then Roman Anthony hit a ground rule double to left-center field off an elevated fastball.
Jason Adam came on for the 10th and tossed a zero, with a strikeout and an intentional walk to keep the ghost runner at second and earn his seventh win. The San Diego bullpen equaled the MLB season-high with 14 strikeouts.
"Because (Jeremiah) Estrada was able to pick up the sixth, it allowed us to have a little bit of a cushion in Jason Adam, who did a tremendous job," Shildt said. "When you're hard to hit you're hard to bunt too, and so he did a great job to get that clean 10th and allow Laureano to be a hero."
Michael King made his first start in 83 days, taking the ball to a warm welcome from the 42,389 at Petco Park. He went two complete innings before being relieved in the third after allowing a second double to Alex Bregman, having thrown 35 of 57 pitches for strikes. King allowed four hits, two runs and two walks with a strikeout.
Walks continued to play a role in the series, as trailing by one in the bottom of the fifth, the Padres worked four straight walks with two outs off Boston starter Lucas Giolito which flipped the scoreboard. San Diego drew eight walks in the game, giving them 26 free passes over the past four games and the most over a similar stretch since May 15 to 19 in the 2023 season.
In the fifth inning Fernando Tatis Jr. led off with his second of two singles, then after back to back outs, Tatis stole third while Jackson Merrill walked on four pitches. With runners on the corners Giolito was wild on his first offering to Xander Bogaerts, which allowed Merrill to take second.
Bogaerts then walked on five pitches, with three missing low, and Ryan O’Hearn earned the first freebie RBI on five pitches as again three were well low of the zone. Laureano worked the go-ahead RBI on a full count, fouling off an up-and-in then low-and-away fastball before taking another low fastball.
The SD shortstop had opened the scoring for the Brown and Gold by golfing a low changeup out to left field down the line for his tenth home run, giving him three in his last four games. Bogaerts also brought home the second San Diego run in the third with a single back up the middle that scored Luis Arraez after he had cracked a one-out double.
Since June 19, Bogaerts has 12 doubles and seven home runs, while ranking third in the Majors with 55 knocks. He’s raised his batting average by 44 points over that span from .227 to .271.
"(I) keep showing up, keep working and we have something nice going on, so it feels nice to contribute," Bogaerts said.
Boston scored a run in the first and then two in the third, making the Padres chase for the majority of the first half of the game. Jarren Duran singled in Bregman after the third baseman had doubled in the opener, then in the third Duran scored on a balk and Matasaka Yoshida reached on an RBI fielder’s choice.
Wandy Peralta followed King, allowing a hit and a run with two walks and a strikeout over two innings. Jeremiah Estrada also added a pair of innings of middle-relief with five strikeouts and no hits allowed. The Padres got ⅔ an inning from Adrian Morejon with a hit allowed and two strikeouts, while Mason Miller went 1 ⅓ innings and struck out three against a hit.
"Now (King's) built up a little bit, he's gotten up three ups if he's efficient and he's gotten to a certain number of pitches he can get into that four and fifth, and I can easily see Michael doing that next time," Shildt said. "Whether it's Michael or any starter, we really do need to get innings out of our starters to be able to use our bullpen appropriately."
The six walks Boston’s Giolito allowed were the most in a game all season, as the Padres got him for five hits and four runs in 4 ⅔ innings with a strikeouts. Garrett Whitlock pitched the 10th and took his second loss.
In a corresponding move with activating King from the 60-day IL, the Padres optioned pitcher Sean Reynolds to Triple-A El Paso prior to the game.
The series finale will see Dylan Cease (4-10, 4.60 ERA) starting for San Diego against right-hander Brayan Bello (8-5, 3.03 ERA) for the Red Sox, with first pitch scheduled for 1:10 p.m. at Petco Park.
This story was updated at 10:16 p.m.