For the second night in a row, Manny Machado came through.
Machado, who has not produced like his baseball card has shown thus far, got to put the crown as the hero for the San Diego Padres on Tuesday night, as his extra-inning single drove home Jackson Merriil for a 7-6 San Diego Padres win on Tuesday, June 23.
The Padres (41-37) responded to early scoring by the Braves (48-30), plating five runs after giving up four in the first inning, then earned Mason Miller’s second win of the season to back up his first two-inning effort of the season.
“We know what group we have,” Machado said. “That inning, four back, we could’ve sat back on our butts and just took our own selfish at bats, but everyone passed the baton — we had a couple walks, a couple base hits, obviously the error was huge that scored the run, but we kept passing it, and that’s what this group is good at.”
Atlanta pushed four across against Griffin Canning, who only pitched 2/3 an inning and allowed four hits and a walk before Kyle Hart rescued him and the Padres. Hart had a walk that allowed a run to score, but was able to get a ground out to end the inning as part of Atlanta’s four-run second. Wandy Peralta had pitched a clean first with a pair of K's.
“It was kind of what we’ve been doing all year. We’ve been getting down, and coming back,” manager Craig Stammen said. “We haven’t had a ton of offense the whole year if you look at it, but we always tend to bounce back and come back in some form or fashion.”
The response was immediate by the Padres, plating five runs in the bottom of the inning and sparked by Rodolfo Durán singling home Xander Bogaerts after a one out walk. Both Bogaerts and Will Wagner had walked with one down, setting up things for Sung-Mun Song to single for another run.
After cutting the deficit to 4-2, Fernando Tatis Jr. followed up with a double, scoring one. Samad Taylor followed with an infield single that he beat out a throw from shortstop Mauricio Dubón, that got away and allowed two more runs to score and gave San Diego a 5-4 lead after the second.
But Atlanta was able to dot Hart for one in the fourth, getting a two-out double from Ozzie Albies to tie the game. Then the Braves took the lead off Yuki Matsui in the fifth, when Dubón hit a no-doubter solo shot to left.
Tatis tied things up in the seventh with his third big fly of the year, working a full count and then launching an inside sinker 410 feet to straight away center field.
“Home runs will come, and if not, whatever, I’m here to play great baseball, obviously homers are a great part of it, but I’m going to keep going out there, get on base for my team, good at-bats out there hard and just try to hit the ball hard all around the field,” Ttais said.
Before the game the Padres recalled JP Sears from Triple-A El Paso, as a response to sending Lucas Giolito to the 15-day IL due to elbow inflammation.
In the series finale San Diego will send Randy Vásquez (6-5, 4.17 ERA) to the hill against Atlanta lefty Martín Pérez (6-3, 2.78 ERA), who will be making his fourth career start against the Brown and Gold. The last time the Padres saw Pérez, he gave up four runs in a loss as a member of the Texas Rangers in 2023.