SAN DIEGO — Slam Diego lives. The Padres playoff hopes? They would possibly simply be alive, too.
Elsewhere on Tuesday evening, the Padres acquired loads of assist in their bid to crash the National League playoff race. They took the sphere at Petco Park in opposition to the Orioles needing to capitalize, needing to ship an announcement of intent — and inside no time, Gary Sánchez had finished precisely that.
Sánchez launched a first-inning grand slam, the primary by a Padres hitter this season, sending San Diego to a much-needed 10-3 victory over Baltimore. With the win — and outcomes elsewhere — the Padres moved inside 5 1/2 video games of the remaining Wild Card spot within the National League.
Not the place they’d prefer to be. But, , child steps.
“Most important for us is just trying to win the series,” Sánchez stated via Spanish interpreter Pedro Gutierrez. “Personally, my mindset’s not really thinking about the playoffs or things like that. It’s just, ‘What can we bring in day by day?’ … Today worked out; same mindset for tomorrow.”
The climb stays a steep one. The Padres should leap 4 groups to maneuver right into a playoff place, they usually path all of these groups by a minimum of three video games. Still, on Tuesday, the Marlins, Reds, Cubs and Brewers all misplaced. (The Giants gained.)
The Padres, after all, have finished loads of shedding these days, too. They entered play Tuesday having dropped seven of eight.
“The results haven’t been there lately,” Sánchez stated. “We know that needs to change. That needs to happen for us. If we take everything one game at a time, fortunately, we can turn this around.”
Staked to an early lead, Michael Wacha pitched 5 scoreless innings in his first begin again from a shoulder harm that sidelined him greater than a month. His return ought to present a significant increase to a rotation that’s with out Joe Musgrove.
Wacha threw solely 77 pitches, restricted by a pitch depend. After lengthy innings within the fourth and fifth, his evening was finished. The Padres weren’t taking any possibilities. Nonetheless, Wacha saved the Orioles off the scoreboard, with 5 innings of three-hit ball. He struck out 5 and walked one, utilizing his changeup as his major putaway weapon, as normal.
“It was a long six weeks of rehab,” Wacha stated. “A lot of time spent with these trainers getting me back on the field. It’s good getting back out there and competing with this group again.”
After a scoreless prime of the primary, the San Diego offense offered Wacha with all of the help he would wish. The buildup to Sánchez’s slam was almost as spectacular because the feat itself.
The Padres’ struggles with males in scoring place have been pronounced, to say the least. But after Ha-Seong Kim’s leadoff double, Manny Machado, Xander Bogaerts and Jake Cronenworth all labored two-out walks, with Cronenworth’s plating the sport’s first run.
“It was an overall team effort,” Sánchez stated. “Obviously the rest of my teammates, they had great at-bats, didn’t chase anything outside of the strike zone. Nobody chased. We were disciplined, able to take those at-bats one at a time. I was fortunate to just come in with the bases loaded and get my pitch.”
Flaherty’s 1-1 providing was a thigh-high fastball simply off the skin nook. Sánchez went with it and launched it 380 toes to the other area, the primary Padres grand slam since Cronenworth’s 363 days earlier.
For a group as soon as given the nickname “Slam Diego” due to its frequency of grand slams … it had been some time.
“Let’s hope we have a lot more on the way,” Sánchez stated.
The Padres didn’t cease there. In the second, Manny Machado doubled dwelling a pair. In the fifth, the newcomers joined the enjoyable. Garrett Cooper and Ben Gamel drove in runs with doubles. The Padres led by 10. They might scoreboard-watch the remainder of the way in which in the event that they needed.
They didn’t. In a playoff race like this one, crammed with so many would-be contenders, the one surefire option to acquire floor is to win your individual video games.
On Tuesday evening, a minimum of, they did precisely that. Then once more, they’ve gained video games like this one earlier than. They’ve merely struggled to construct any measure of momentum once they do.
“We’ve said that a lot,” stated Padres supervisor Bob Melvin. “We’ve played games like this, and then it’s the follow-up that’s the most important thing.”
Content Source: www.mlb.com