The San Diego Padres maintained their dominance in the NL East with a sweep of the Tampa Bay Rays. The Padres' bats have been steady in four consecutive winners' series.
After shutting out the high-powered Tampa Bay Rays 2-0 the day before, the Padres responded with a 5-4, one-run victory in the series finale on Father's Day (June 19) in front of their 29th sellout crowd (44,404). 35-36 on the season.
Tampa Bay led in hits, 12-7. It was Tampa Bay's first losing series since June 1 against the Chicago Cubs. However, the Rays are 51-24 and still have the best winning percentage (.680) in MLB.
Tampa Bay opened the scoring in the second inning on a Josh Lowe RBI single, but the Padres capitalized on a shortstop error in the top of the third to take a 2-1 lead. With runners on first and third and one out, catcher Christian Betancourt caught Juan Soto's grounder and tried to throw out Fernando Tatis Jr. at second base.
However, shortstop Wander Franco was unable to make the catch and dropped it, allowing third baseman Trent Grisham to score. Tatis Jr. was quick to react, stopping at third base and diving for home as the throw went behind the shortstop. Franco gave up three unearned runs in the third inning on two errors, one on a catch and one on a throw. The two runs were unearned.
The Padres cut the Tampa Bay lead to 3-2 in the bottom of the fourth when Lugned Odor, who started at second base, doubled and Manny Machado doubled to center field in the fifth.
However, Tampa Bay scored two runs in the top of the eighth on RBI singles by Manuel Margot and Harold Ramirez to put the game out of reach. With the bases loaded and Tampa Bay in scoring position, Tatis Jr. made a ruling that proved to be the difference.
With runners on first, second and third, Betancourt singled to right and Margot raced home from second. Tatis Jr. advanced and threw home hard, and catcher Austin Nola tagged out Margot to end the threat. Tampa Bay appealed, but it ended up on center field.
Padres starter Joe Mosgrove (5-2, 4.22) pitched six strong innings, allowing two runs on six hits with one walk and one strikeout. Closer Josh Hader faced three batters and struck out two to preserve the one-run lead and earn his 18th save of the season. Machado had two hits, a sacrifice fly and an RBI single. 메이저사이트
Ha-Sung Kim was replaced by O'Doherty with one out in the ninth for defense and did not bat.
The Padres return home to host the red-hot San Francisco Giants on April 20, who are in second place with a seven-game winning streak. They won their first two home games against the Giants.
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