SAN DIEGO – The early stages were concerning for San Diego, as starter Casey Mize left with an ankle sprain after just 2 2/3 innings, but the Padres offense roared to life with a four-run seventh to rally for a 7-5 win over the Minnesota Twins on Saturday night at Petco Park.
Despite allowing runs in each of the first four innings, the Padres (70-60) rallied behind multi-RBI games from Jackson Merrill and Jake Cronenworth, who became a key catalyst in the later innings. Minnesota (63-67) starter Dean Kremer had confounded the Brown and Gold bats, allowing just three hits and two runs through 5 1/3 innings, but a pair of errors paved the way for the Padres 36th comeback win.
Merrill notched the first two RBI of the for the Padres, hitting a solo home run in the second, then knocking in Cronenworth in the sixth off reliever A.J. Minter after the second baseman gave the Brown and Gold their first lead-off hit of the game with a double.
Then in the seventh inning Freddy Fermin reached on a catcher’s interference that the Padres challenged and won. Fernando Tatis Jr. followed by attacking a high fastball and singling to right, then Cronenworth drove a double into the left field corner down the line for a pair of RBI.
Manny Machado hit a ground ball to short, and with Cronenworth taking off for third, third baseman Brooks Lee missed short stop Kaelen Culpepper’s throw, which allowed Cronenworth to score the game-tying run. Ty France kept it going, hitting the go-ahead RBI single to right.
Luis Campusano singled to start the eighth, then after a one-out Fermin single, Tatis gave some additional breathing room with an RBI knock.
San Diego got 3 1/3 innings of critical relief from Griffin Canning, who allowed three hits and a walk with a strikeout, but most importantly no runs allowed. He escaped a men on second and third situation in the fifth, then wriggled free from a one-out, bases-loaded jam an inning later to earn his fourth win.
The Twins scored the first three runs of the game, all coming via solo home runs off San Diego starter Mize. Luke Keaschall led the game off with his eighth home run, lining up an elevated slider on the fourth pitch. Then in the second inning Lee hit his 19th home run and Culpepper followed up with his second, both coming with two outs and on four-seam fastballs.
Merrill was able to get one back in the home half of the second, hammering a first-pitch splitter 430 feet to straight-away center field for his 20th long ball of the season, the second time in his three seasons that he’s reached that milestone.
But Mize appeared to be laboring after he had slipped going down the dugout steps following the second inning. Having topped out at 94 MPH in the first two innings with his fastball, he hit above 90 MPH on just three pitches in the third, all coming in a ten-pitch at bat which ultimately ended with a Ryan Jeffers double. That concluded Mize’s night, as he had four hits and four earned runs allowed with a walk as he left the game with a trainer.
That fourth run came as Kyle Hart was the replacement out of the pen, and in his first batter faced allowed an RBI single back up the middle by Kody Clemens. Hart would allow another run in the fourth, as Brooks Lee doubled with one out, then Keaschall hit a line-drive RBI single to center field.
Canning came on to get the final out of the fourth inning, as he threw up zeroes the rest of the way. It set the table for Adrian Morejon to pitch a one-two-three eighth with a strikeout, then Mason Miller notched his 32nd save by striking out one and retiring the Twins in order.
Elsewhere, the Cincinnati Reds did San Diego a solid by taking an 11-5 win at the Arizona Diamondbacks. It extended the Padres lead for the third and final NL Wild Card back to two games, though they remained two games behind Philadelphia for the second NL Wild Card, as the Phillies extended their winning streak to eight games by blitzing St. Louis 12-3.
For the series finale, Walker Buehler (7-6, 4.79 ERA) will take the hill for the Padres against Twins’ righty Bailey Ober (7-4, 4.62 ERA). Ober has not earned a win over his past five starts, having gone through six innings three times and in three outings he has allowed three or fewer runs. First pitch is scheduled for 1:10 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 23 at Petco Park.