Ramon Laureano’s goal in the bottom of the 10th inning Saturday night was to hit a game-winning, three-run homer.
But the San Diego Padres were more than happy to settle for an RBI single that walked off the visiting Boston Red Sox 5-4, giving the Padres a chance to take the series in Sunday afternoon’s rubber game.
And Laureano figures to be front and center in whatever San Diego is doing, given how his first eight games with the team have gone since he was acquired July 31 at the trading deadline from Baltimore.
Laureano is batting .294 with a homer and eight RBIs, showing good opposite-field power and offering much-needed length to a lineup that’s struggled badly at its bottom this year. He also drew a bases-loaded walk in the fifth inning Saturday that gave the Padres a 4-3 lead.
“Good player; clearly, he’s helping us,” San Diego manager Mike Shildt said of Laureano. “He takes tough at-bats, and he really helps us in the outfield as well. He’s a winning guy.”
Laureano’s 16 homers and 54 RBIs constitute his best season since 2019, his second MLB year, when he hit 24 homers and drove in 67 runs for Oakland. He’s two homers away from 100 for his career.
While Laureano has provided plenty of offense since his arrival, Dylan Cease (4-10, 4.60 ERA) hopes for a second straight win on the mound. The hard-throwing right-hander tossed five shutout innings last Sunday in a 7-3 win over St. Louis, allowing just one hit and one walk while striking out nine.
Cease has struggled in five career starts against Boston, though, going 0-1 with a 6.85 ERA over 22 1/3 innings.
The Red Sox will counter with right-hander Brayan Bello (8-5, 3.03), who’s coming off an 8-5 victory Monday against Kansas City. Bello yielded six hits and an unearned run in six innings, walking one and striking out five. This will be his first career outing against the Padres.
Boston had plenty of chances to earn a series win Saturday night and put itself in position to sweep but couldn’t capitalize enough. It stranded 11 runners, going 3-for-14 with runners in scoring position, and wasted an eighth-inning out when pinch runner David Hamilton came off the bag after stealing second and was tagged out.
Hamilton also failed to move over the automatic runner, Trevor Story, to start the 10th inning when he tried to bunt him to third and struck out.
“Frustrating,” summed up Hamilton. “I didn’t think those pitches were strikes, but I’ve got to do a better job.”
It was a rare failure of late for the Red Sox, who lost for just the second time in 10 games. Despite Saturday’s defeat, they’re still tied with Seattle for the American League’s first wild-card spot and remain only three games behind first-place Toronto in the AL East.
Boston pitchers will try to pepper the strike zone with more consistency than they have at times in this series. San Diego hitters have drawn 15 walks, including eight on Saturday night. Two of those came with the bases loaded in the fifth inning.
–Field Level Media
