The San Diego Padres will have the advantage of playing while the rival Arizona Diamondbacks watch from afar when the Padres continue a road series against the San Francisco Giants on Saturday afternoon.
Moments after San Francisco’s Oracle Park scoreboard flashed an Arizona win over the Texas Rangers in Phoenix on Friday night — a victory that temporarily moved the Diamondbacks (79-69) into a tie for the final National League wild-card spot — the Padres survived a tense finish with the Giants to move back in front in the race with a 7-5 victory to improve to 79-68.
Down 7-1 at one point, San Francisco pulled to 7-5, then loaded the bases against San Diego closer Mason Miller with two outs in the ninth. Miller then struck out one of the Giants’ hottest hitters, Bryce Eldridge, to allow the Padres to breathe a sigh of relief.
Jackson Merrill, who contributed three hits and two runs to the Padres’ fifth straight win, told a national television audience afterward that his club is doing a good job of focusing on the task at hand.
“Every game is a new day. Come out ready to compete and try to win a baseball game, not focus a lot on the race or anything,” he said. “Try to get to the end of the season with as many wins as possible under our belt.”
With a chance to extend their lead to a full game before the Diamondbacks take the field on Saturday night, the Padres have scheduled right-hander Michael King (10-9, 3.00 ERA) to start the rematch vs. the Giants.
King will face the Giants for the first time this season but has a history of success over San Francisco, going 3-1 with a 2.22 ERA in five games (four starts) overall and 1-0 with seven innings of shutout ball at Oracle Park.
The Giants (62-86) will counter with left-hander Cesar Perdomo (0-0, 0.90 ERA), who will make his home debut.
The 24-year-old got a hard-luck no-decision in his first big-league start last Sunday in New York against the Mets, blanking the hosts over six innings in his team’s 4-2 loss.
Perdomo has never faced the Padres.
The Giants’ series-opening loss on Friday, which snapped the team’s three-game winning streak, featured a grand slam by Rafael Devers and a double, single and RBI by Eldridge before his game-ending strikeout.
Jonah Cox, whose bunt single with two outs in the ninth helped get Eldridge to the plate with a chance to be a hero, already recognizes that Eldridge, 21, is going to make the home fans happy more times than not, as he did with a walk-off grand slam in a similar bottom-of-the-ninth situation earlier this season.
“People (are) kind of realizing the caliber of player that he is, and I think he’s starting to realize it as well,” Cox told reporters earlier this week. “He’s that guy. He is the guy that we want up in those situations, and it’s just really cool to see.”
Eldridge has never faced King.
– Field Level Media
