SAN DIEGO – It took all of two innings for both the starters to be chased, but the San Diego Padres kept feasting and ultimately held on to ride Ty France’s sixth inning solo home run for an 8-7 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday night at Petco Park.
The best thing for the Padres (47-48) was that you’d be hard-pressed to highlight one specific player for their offense across the game. Five different players had RBIs, with Manny Machado and Sun-Mung Song both driving in a pair. For the Blue Jays (45-50), they drew even in the top of the sixth thanks to a bash from Vladimir Guerrero Jr., but Mason Fluharty allowed the go-ahead solo shot in the bottom that stood up as the winner.
"These last two games before the All Star Break are definitely important, we feel like we need a little bit of momentum going into the break and a good taste in out mouth. Today was a hard fought game where we we felt like we had the game, and we gave it up, and a big hit by Ty in the right moment got us to the back end of our bullpen so they could shut it down," manager Craig Stammen said.
"A lot of layers to this game, but a lot of fight from our team and a lot of 'not-give-up', this team is not giving up, that is fact, we've seen this the entire year, that is one quality that they have amongst the struggles we've had this year, but they do not give up — it's a tough group in there that seems to be very resilient, and that's going to bode well for the second half of the season."
All Star Mason Miller was able to work around a lead-off single by Nathan Lukes, who was pinch-run for by Myles Straw and stole a base with one out, but a strike out of Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and then a line out from George Springer and whiff of Kazuma Okamoto to put away the result.
It was France’s solo home run on the ninth pitch that he launched off the former Western Metal Supply Co. Building’s second deck facade in left field, his 11th homer of the season, that proved the difference for the Brown and Gold in the sixth inning.
All of San Diego’s smart and supple early hitting had come undone in the top of the sixth inning, when Guerrero hit his sixth home run of the season off reliever Bradgley Rodriguez. He hammered the second pitch he saw 385 feet into the left field corner to tie the game at sevens, the kind of no-doubter shot that may have knocked down the Pads earlier.
Not so, and Rodriguez would go on to earn his second win of the season.
Walker Buehler got chased with four runs across the first two innings, so Matt Waldron settled things down over the next three. Despite allowing runners in his first two innings, Waldron was able to keep the Jays off the board by getting a liner to end the third and getting three in a row with men on first and third to end the fourth — highlighted by Song diving to snatch a liner off the bat of George Springer to end the fourth.
"Walker just had that rough second inning, their starter was walking a lot of guys and he walked a few guys in that inning and gave up the home run, but Matt (was) able to get called up today, was in Triple-A putting in the work, and he was ready to go today from the jump and that was a big few innings that we needed from him and (he) really calmed the game for u down and gave us a chance to get a lead," Stammen said.
WIth many in attendance wearing their themed giveaway Michael King hockey jerseys, the sold out crowd enjoyed the Padres pushing across runs in each of the first four innings, enjoying a feast on the kind of RISP opportunities that they had left on the bone too often for much of the season.
San Diego loaded the bases in the first, with Fernando Tatis Jr., Jackson Merrill and Xander Bogaerts all working free passes against Toronto starter Trey Yesavage. Then San Diego put a pair on the board, as Gavin Sheets walked and France hit a sac fly to score the first pair of Padres runs.
Then in the second Machado hit a single with the bases loaded to tie the game.
To tie the game? Yes.
Toronto had scored four in the second, as the Blue Jays made early walks hurt. Alejandro Kirk hit a double after the first two men in the second walked, then Andrés Giménez hit into a ground out that tied the game. Then Jonathan Clase hit his second home run of the season that gave the Blue Jays a 4-2 lead at the time.
The Padres feasted with the bases loaded in the third, as walks by Song, Merrill and Bogaerts loaded the bases for the Padres. Machado tied the game with a stroke of his bat.
"That is why Manny is Manny, because 99-percent of the people would've challenged the 3-0 pitch, he said he was moving towards first base and didn't get a good look at it, but he has the belief in himself that he would rather swing the bat than take a walk," Stammen said. "There's times where it doesn't work for him that way, and there's other times where he's Manny Machado and he gets the big hit there when nobody else can get a hit."
Then in the third, France wore a knuckle curve from reliever Adam Macko with one down, coming around to score after Jake Cronenworth singled with one gone and Song roped a two-RBI single to center field with two down in the third.
"Huge game today, (Song's) had a couple huge games of late, feels like he's finding his groove and playing like the player (he was) in Korea — big left-on-left hit today, great play at third base, taking walks, making good swings, stealing bases a complete player on display and we've got to continue to find ways to get him in the lineup," Stammen said.
San Diego added another in the fourth against reliever Braydon Fisher, getting a two-out walk from Gavin Sheets and then a Ty France single. That set the table for second baseman Jake Cronenworth to rip another RBI single up the middle, giving him seven RBI since returning from the injured list.
For the rubber match of the series, it’ll be Germán Márquez (4-2, 5.02 ERA) getting the nod for the Padres against right-hander Kevin Gausman (4-8, 4.32 ERA), who has taken the loss in his last four starts. First pitch at Petco Park is scheduled for 1:10 p.m.
This story was updated at 9:18 p.m.