The Padres took one step closer to securing a playoff berth on Wednesday night with a 5-1 win over the Dodgers, thereby reducing their magic number to 1. With another Padres win or loss by the Diamondbacks, the Padres will officially clinch a playoff berth. Manny Machado opened the scoring for the Padres with a 2-run homer off of Yoshinobu Yamamoto in the 4th inning. Things got dicey in the bottom of the 4th inning for starter Robbie Ray, as he gave up three consecutive singles to load the bases with no outs for Max Muncy while leading 2-0. Muncy would fly out to shallow center, preventing a runner from tagging up and scoring from third base. After recoring just 10 outs and with the game hanging in the balance, Craig Stammen used his bullpen aggressively and brought in David Morgan to face Tommy Edman with the bases loaded and one out. After Edman hit a sac-fly to left field to bring in a run from third base, Mookie Betts drew a walk to re-load the bases for Shohei Ohtani with two outs. After falling behind in the count 3-1, Morgan threw a 98 mph fastball that was called balled four that would have brought in a run to tie the game, but rookie catcher Ethan Salas challenged the call and ABS replay showed that the pitch barely clipped the strike zone, making it full count to extend the at-bat. After Ohtani fouled off two pitches, Morgan struck Ohtani out swinging to escape the jam with a 2-1 lead.
The Padres found some good fortune in the top of the 5th inning. Following back-to-back infield singles from Salas and Fernando Tatis Jr. to begin the inning, Dustin Harris laid down a bunt in an attempt to advance both runners. Yamamoto fielded the ball cleanly and tried to throw out the lead runner at third base, but made an errant throw that went well into foul territory, allowing Salas to come around and score and Tatis Jr. to reach third base. Tatis Jr. would tag up and score on a sac-fly to center by Manny Machado extending the lead to 4-1. That would be all the offense the Padres would need, as they would go on to win 5-1 and beat Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Nick Pivetta is scheduled to start on Thursday for the Padres.
You can watch the Jamul Casino Resort Padres Postgame Show below, with full highlights from the game and Craig Stammen's postgame press conference.
