SAN DIEGO, CA – SEPTEMBER 23: Fernando Tatis Jr #23 of the San Diego Padres slides into home plate after tagging up in the first inning against the San Francisco Giants on September 23, 2021 at Petco Park in San Diego, California. (Photo by Matt Thomas/San Diego Padres/Getty Images)
During their 3-game series at Petco Park the Padres showed the kind of resolve that's been missing since July. They made comebacks in every game.
This time, they were able to get a win out of it.
Victor Caratini's infield hit brought home the game-wining run in the 10th inning of a 7-6 win over the Giants, avoiding another sweep at the hands of a team destined for the post-season.
Yu Darvish got the start and was staked to a big lead. The Padres scored four times in the 1st inning off San Francisco starter Logan Webb. Jurickson Profar was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded then Trent Grisham hit a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0. Ha-Seong Kim and Victor Caratini followed with RBI singles to make it 4-0.
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San Francisco cut the lead in half the next inning on a 2-run homer by Mike Yastrzemski. Darvish struck out seven and didn't allow another run until the 6th inning, and he had a little unfortunate help in doing that.
Yu gave up two runners on a walk and a single then punched out Kris Bryant. With the left-handed hitting LaMonte Wade coming up Padres manager Jayce Tingler replaced Darvish with lefty Tim Hill. Giants skipper Gabe Kapler countered by sending in right-hand hitting Austin Slater to pinch-hit.
Slater launched a poorly placed pitch over the left field fence for a 3-run home run to give the Giants a 5-4 lead. It's the latest in a series of moves that simply have not worked for Tingler and put his squarely on the managerial hot seat.
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In the bottom of the 6th the Padres took the lead back on back-to-back homers from Grisham and Kim and for a minute that old magic they'd shown for the first half of the season seemed to be back. It disappeared an inning later. Pierce Johnson gave up back-to-back doubles to Wilmer Flores and Tommy La Stella and it was knotted 6-6.
It stayed that way into extra innings, and Caratini once again showed his flair for the dramatic. Caratini legged out an infield single to bring home Jurickson Profar with one out and give the Friars a 7-6 win, which kept the Friars 5.0 games behind the scorching hot Cardinals for the 2nd NL Wild Card spot. St. Louis beat Milwaukee for their 12th straight win.
On Friday the Padres start their final home series of the year, which will be 3+ games against Atlanta. Starting at 5:20 they finish up a game that started in Georgia but was delayed by rain several weeks back with the Braves as the home team. At 7:10 they play the scheduled Friday night game.
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