Padres Rally in 8th for Big Win En Route to Playoffs

 The San Diego Padres, who need to juggle their line-up more than any other team due to several starters struggling massively against left-handed pitchers like Sean Manaea, finally rallied in the bottom of the 8th for a win that moved them ahead of the Phillies and Braves into 5th place. 

With the score tied 1-1 Jackson Merrill, one of three Padres who has hits turned into strikeouts on random numbers of 11-13 (his 13/88 indicates this and that against a righty an 88 turns from an out to a single) finally faced a rightly in the 8th and singled and stole second. The table below shows that we bat him No. 2 against righties but No. 9 against lefties. His hit was on an 88, so would have been an out if Manaea was still in the game.

Fernando Tatis Jr then hit a ground to 2nd base to move him to third, and when 2nd baseman Jeff McNeil bobbled the ball for an error, runners were on the corners. Tatis then also stole second base. Ramón Laureano, who is only in the line-up because of the lefty starter (87/11 indicated an 87 or 88 turns to a single against a lefty and 11 is a strikeout against a righty) then hit a ground to Francisco Lindor at short, but Merrill raced home and beat the throw home with the game winning run to make it 2-1.

Xander Bogaerts, who came into replace Manny Machado when a line drive hit him at 3rd base, then hit into a double play but Tatis scored from 3rd for the 3-1 lead. Mark Vientos homered for the Mets in the top of the 9th, but the Padres held on 3-2 for the crucial win. Here are the standings after the game in what will be a 48-game season.

Milwaukee 26-13   ---   (leads "East" for bye)

LA Dodgers 21-12  2    (leads "West" for bye)

NY Mets 25-17   2.5

Chicago Cubs 24-18  3.5

San Diego 22-20   5.5 (last team in playoffs with no tie-braker game)

Atlanta 23-22  6 (would play in one-game playoff to make playoffs if season ended today)

Philadelphia 23-22  6 (would play in one-game playoff to make playoffs if season ended today)

Cincinnati 20-22  7.5 (would miss playoffs if season ended today).

 

Pos	SD Padres	v. L	v. R	Plat	HR	SB	OPS
CF	Fernando Tatis Jr.	1	1	13/NA	27-33	AA	0.826
RF	Ramón Laureano	2		87/11	25-27	B	0.722
3b	Manny Machado	3	3	NA/NA	32-35	B	0.825
LF	Ryan O'Hearn	4	4	12'/NA	31-34	C	0.826
DH	Luis Arraez	5	5	11/NA		D	0.736
1b	Jake Cronenworth	6	6	13/88	26-27	D	0.728
ss	Jose Iglesias	7		86/11	33	D	0.669
C	Freddy Fermin	8		88/NA	28	D	0.675
SS	Jackson Merrill	9	2	13/88	32-35	B	0.788
2b	Xander Bogaerts		7	11/NA	31-32	B	0.724
RF	Gavin Sheets		8	11/NA	25-27	D	0.704
C	Elias Díaz		9	11/NA	25-26	E	0.615
SS	Mason McCoy			-/-		C	0.522
C	Martin Maldonado			-/-		E	0.533
Pos	NY Mets	v. L	v. R	Plat	HR	SB	OPS
SS	Francisco Lindor	1	1	NA/NA	25-31	A	0.801
DH	Juan Soto	2	2	88/NA	23-27	D	0.946
1b	Pete Alonso	3	3	NA/NA	25-32	D	0.884
C	Francisco Álvarez	4	4	88/NA	27-33	D	0.784
CF	Brandon Nimmo	5	5	NA/NA	25-27	C	0.763
3b	Mark Vientos	6	6	NA/NA	24-28	E	0.759
RF	Jesse Winker	7	7	11/NA	24-25	C	0.739
LF	Starling Marte	8	8	87/11	32	A	0.719
2B	Jeff McNeil	9	9	11/NA	27-31	D	0.711
CF	Cedric Mullins			14/88	26-28	A	0.726
3b	Ronny Mauricio				27-28	B	0.678
cf	Hayden Senger			NA/11		E	0.564
ss	Luisangel Acuña			NA/11	31	A	0.630
RF	Tyrone Taylor			NA/NA	26-27	A	0.683
CF	Jose Siri			88/NA	21-24	A	0.687
C	Luis Torrens			NA/11	26-28	E	0.698
2b	Brett Baty			12'/NA	25-27	D	0.714
PB	SD Pitchers	IP	R	K	End	MaxIP	ERA
2'-8	Dylan Cease	6	1	23-44	14	6	3.48
2'-8	Robert Suarez	1	0	25-51	3	2	3.55
2'-8	Mason Miller	1	0	22-48	3	2	2.71
2'-9	Jason Adam	1	1	24-48	3	2	3.43
PB	NY Pitchers	IP	R	K	SR	MaxIP	ERA
2'-7	Sean Manaea	7	1	25-43	15	7	4.31
2'-9	Ryan Helsley	1	1	23-45	3	2	2.77

Grid of games to play and scoresheet.