While the San Diego Padres would prefer not to have to rally from behind so often, they have become one of the top comeback teams in the majors this year.
Saturday night’s 7-5 victory over the visiting Minnesota Twins, which saw San Diego erase a 5-1 deficit, was its 36th win after trailing at any point. That’s the fourth-most in the majors.
The triumph puts the Padres in position to sweep the series on Sunday.
Why has San Diego been so good at rallying from late-game deficits?
“With the bullpen we’ve got, we feel like we’re never out of a game,” said second baseman Jake Cronenworth.
“The guys kept their energy up,” said manager Craig Stammen. “They kept saying, ‘Let’s score one and then we’ll find a way.’ They did.”
By doing so, the Padres boosted their lead for the National League’s last wild-card spot to two games over Arizona while staying two games back of Philadelphia for the second wild-card position.
Cronenworth and Fernando Tatis Jr. fueled this comeback. Cronenworth doubled to start the sixth and came around on a Jackson Merrill single. He added a two-run two-bagger in the seventh, then scored the tying run on Minnesota’s second error of the inning.
Tatis singled and scored in the seventh, then added insurance with an RBI single in the eighth to cap another two-hit game. He’s 8-for-17 in the last four games and is now hitting .285, nearly a 50-point improvement from his average earlier in the season.
“One of those players you can’t keep your eyes off,” Stammen said of Tatis.
Walker Buehler (7-6, 4.79 ERA) takes the mound in the series finale. He pitched well Monday night but lost 2-1 at the New York Mets, yielding only two hits and two runs with two walks and four strikeouts in six innings. Buehler will face Minnesota for the first time in in his 183th major league appearance.
Bailey Ober (7-4, 4.62) opposes Buehler. He was no-decisioned in a 4-2 win over Atlanta Monday night, allowing six hits and two runs in 4 1/3 innings while walking one and whiffing four. Ober has no record with a 4.50 earned run average in two career outings against San Diego.
The Twins came to town tied with Texas for the American League’s final wild-card slot and now trail three teams. Saturday’s gut-punch defeat kept them a game behind the Rangers and Cleveland while enabling Toronto to move a half-game above them.
If there was good news from the defeat, it was the continued emergence of rookie Kaelen Culpepper as a long-term answer at shortstop. Culpepper blasted a 400-foot homer to left in the second inning and displayed a cannon arm, going a step or two on the outfield grass behind shortstop to field Luis Campusano’s hard grounder and easily gun him out at first to end the sixth inning.
“He continues to get better,” said Minnesota manager Derek Shelton earlier this week. “We’re seeing he’s free and easy. Defensively, getting better and offensively, this kid can hit. We knew that when we drafted him.”
–Field Level Media
