ARLINGTON, Texas - Is this the reason why the Padres nor Padres manger Craig Stammen haven't given up on Manny Machado?
Besides his heavy contract and his larger than life personality, his experience for being known as "the guy" and to come up in the big moments is something that's hard to replace or ignore in the lineup. And his phenomenal five RBI performance against the Rangers on Saturday proved to be spot on.
Unloading on a dead center sinker, Machado sent out a go-ahead three run homer in the tenth inning to give the lead, which lifted San Diego to a 6-4 win at Globe Life Field.
His 13th home run of the season against right-hander Joe Ross capped off a 2-for-5 outing where he hit an RBI double to score Fernando Tatis Jr. in the third inning off former Padres first round selection MacKenzie Gore and a sac-fly in the eighth to make it a one-run game while trailing 3-1. Later in the inning, Jackson Merrill evened the game on the first pitch from right-hander Tyler Alexander, who replaced right-hander Cole Winn after forcing a ground out to Xander Bogaerts that advanced Samad Taylor to third base.
Despite the eight runs scored through the last three frames and 11 runs scored in the first inning during their first meeting last night, both teams struggled to get anything on either starting pitcher.
Right-hander Walker Buehler threw a respectable 87 pitches (60 counted for strikes) through 5 1/3 innings. The only run he surrendered came in the sixth inning on back-to-back doubles by Josh Jung and Wyatt Langford, and he was quickly pulled for reliever Kyle Hart, who left the inherited runner stranded in scoring position following a strikeout and ground out. Buehler finished his outing tying his season-high in strikeouts (7), giving up five hits and at one point sat down nine batters in-a-row.
In the month of June, the 31-year-old has 1.71 ERA and 22 strikeouts, solidifying himself as the team’s best starter over the recent stretch. In his last seven starts, Buehler has pitched a total of 36 1/3 innings and possesses a 2-1 record with a 2.72 ERA.
Texas jumped ahead 3-1 during the seventh inning against reliever Jason Adam. First baseman Jake Burger, who had two RBI the night prior, sent out a four-seam fastball 408 ft to right center for his 13th. Adam did recover from his mistake by forcing a ground out and striking out a pair.
Lefty Adrian Morejon (W, 6-1) pitched a nearly flawless eighth and ninth inning, punching out five batters and one hit allowed. Making his first appearance since returning from personal matters, right-hander Mason Miller closed out the tenth inning and earned his 20th save of the season. Miller did give up an RBI single to Wyatt Langford, who reached on base from an off line throw by Machado.
While it's early to give this team any praise offensively, the Padres have shown some positive signs over the last three games. During that span, they've scored 19 runs and have 33 hits. Players like Taylor, who extended his hitting streak to 11 games, went 1-for-3 with two runs, Tatis Jr. went 2-for-5 with two doubles and three runs and Merrill went 3-for-5.
It's the first occurrence in some time where the bottom part of the order didn't contribute for the big names in the lineup. Blake Hunt, who appeared in last night's game but didn't have an at-bat, made his first major league start at catcher but finished 0-for-3 with three strikes and was replaced by Rodolfo Durán to pinch hit in the ninth inning.
The finale of the series and the road stand will be tomorrow with a 11:35 p.m. first pitch. Both team's starting pitcher haven't yet been announced.
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