The Padres simply might need to do it the laborious means this season.
Maybe they’re resigned to that reality.
They blew an early three-run lead, did completely nothing offensively for six innings, went down by three runs within the tenth and got here again to beat the Nationals 7-6 on Jurickson Profar’s walk-off single that may have been a ground-rule double had he cared sufficient to the touch second base.
“I don’t care,” Profar mentioned of why he veered off earlier than reaching second to take part in a wild celebration. “I care about these two that went residence.”
Profar’s heroics have been preceded by a Donovan Solano’s double, which moved computerized runner Jakes Cronenworth to 3rd. Jackson Merrill adopted with a single lined to heart that bought the Padres to 6-5. Ha-Seong Kim walked, and pinch-hitter Tyler Wade superior each runners with a sacrifice bunt earlier than David Peralta, pinch-hitting as nicely, popped out.
Peralta had hardly completed slamming his bat to the bottom when the Nationals signaled they have been deliberately strolling Luis Arraez to load the bases and produce up Profar.
“I felt disrespected,” Profar mentioned.
“That’s a decide your poison, and both means it’s a poison,” Padres supervisor Mike Shildt mentioned of strolling the Nationwide League’s sixth-leading hitter to face the league’s second-leading hitter.
Profar shortly fell behind 0-2 to Hunter Harvey, who had began the tenth for the Nationals. The subsequent pitch, a 98 mph fastball, sailed up close to his head and knocked him on his again. He took one other ball after which fouled off two extra fastballs earlier than driving a splitter to the hole in proper area.
As Merrill and Kim raced residence and the Padres streamed from the dugout to have a good time their fourth walk-off win of their previous seven residence video games, they needed to get to 3rd base to fulfill Profar, who ripped off his helmet and began operating throughout the grass shortly after rounding first base, because the ball landed on the warning monitor and bounced over the wall.
After he was mobbed in foul territory, Profar broke unfastened from his teammates and repeated raised his arms emphatically towards the group.
“There have been two issues,” he mentioned of what had him much more exuberant than regular. “The stroll after which this pitch up and in as much as my face. That pumped me up quite a bit.”
All this got here on the day the Padres discovered for positive they might lose certainly one of their greatest bats for an prolonged interval and wouldn’t be getting again certainly one of their finest beginning pitchers as quickly as anticipated.
The Padres introduced Monday that proper fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. was happening the injured record with a stress response in his proper femur, an harm that’s anticipated to maintain him out at the very least one other month and maybe twice that lengthy (or longer). It was additionally revealed that newly surfaced elbow irritation would stop beginning pitcher Yu Darvish from making his scheduled return from the injured record.
It’s not recognized how lengthy Darvish can be out, however even a brief delay stresses a rotation that has been with out Darvish and Joe Musgrove (elbow) for a lot of the season and has been getting spotty outcomes from Dylan Stop and others over the previous few weeks.
Fortuitously for them, as all the pieces else crumbles round him, Matt Waldron and his fluttering knuckleball proceed to supply what stability he can.
On Monday, the right-hander turned in his fifth consecutive high quality begin, permitting two runs over six innings. In doing so, he grew to become simply the fifth Padres pitcher ever to have 9 straight begins by which he went at the very least 5 innings and allowed not more than two runs.
Waldron had thrown 97 pitches via 5 innings, largely as a result of he couldn’t fairly command his knuckleball and since the Nationals have been as selective with the pitch as any group has been this season.
He then bought via the sixth inning on 10 pitches.
His ERA dropped three-hundredths of some extent to three.43 on the season. However he has been so good these days — with the third-lowest ERA (1.82) within the majors over his previous eight begins — that his outing appeared pedestrian by comparability.
He departed with the Padres up 3-2.
All three of the Padres’ runs got here within the second inning, as they went up 3-0 on singles by Cronenworth and Solano in the beginning and an RBI single by Kim and a two-run double by Kyle Higashioka.
They bought only one extra hit off left-hander Patrick Corbin, who went seven innings for the primary time this season and lowered his ERA to five.46.
They’d additionally go hitless towards two relievers, finally going 19 batters with no hit between Manny Machado’s single within the third inning and Solano’s double within the tenth.
The Nationals, who arrived in San Diego with a 38-39 file however with the very best mark (11-4) within the majors since June 7, chipped away with a pair of doubles within the third inning and a few success within the fifth.
A one-out double by CJ Abrams, one of many former No.1 prospects the Padres traded to Washington in 2022 for Juan Soto, and a two-out double by Joey Maneses bought the Nationals on the board.
They bought to 3-2 within the fifth when Waldron hit No.9 batter Jacob Younger and yielded a single to Abrams. Waldron struck out Lane Thomas and Jesse Winker, however the Nationals executed a double steal on Winker’s strikeout, and Abrams scored when Maneses dribbled a ball down the third final analysis that Waldron picked up however had no play.
The Nationals tied the sport within the seventh towards Morejón.
Abrams bought his third hit, a one-out single, and stole second throughout Thomas’ strikeout. It appeared the inning would finish on Winker’s grounder to Cronenworth at second base. Cronenworth fielded the ball whereas transferring to his proper, turned and had the ball slip from his hand and basically roll to first base. Winker was protected, and Maneses hit the subsequent pitch on a line to left area to attain Abrams.
“I used to be so mad after the hit,” Cronenworth mentioned. “That’s the maddest I’ve been in a very long time.”
With a runner second base to start out the tenth, De Los Santos bought two outs earlier than surrendering an RBI double to Keibert Ruiz and a two-run homer to Nick Senzel that made it 6-3.
Simply when it appeared a postgame fireworks present was all there can be to stay up for, the Padres began hitting once more.
“We have now to determine quite a lot of other ways,” Shildt mentioned. “Like I discuss, winners discover options. We’ve bought to play with the membership we’ve got — which I really like — and use the talent units required primarily based on the state of affairs. So we did issues a bit bit another way relative to what the sport referred to as for. … I imply, we’re gonna miss our man. We’re gonna help the heck out of him like we’ve got the opposite guys that haven’t been with us as a lot.
“They’ve been nice teammates. They’re there cheering us like loopy. Tati got here as much as me as a result of I feel he is aware of I really like popcorn and gave me some rally popcorn. Really within the ninth, and we carried it over to the tenth. Nevertheless it was nice. We’ve bought to determine a strategy to win video games and there’s quite a lot of other ways to do it.”