The Padres rode a ninth-inning comeback to victory Thursday, to claim two games of the three-game set against the Washington Nationals.
It wasn’t easy though, as they first surrendered a five-run inning to the Nationals, an attack that erased a 5-1 Padre advantage.
But Rougned Odor lifted his team again, this team with two outs in the top of the ninth. He also took the burden off the bullpen, which had faltered in the seventh.
Jake Cronenworth and Juan Soto led off the ninth with singles, only to have Xander Bogaerts and Matt Carpenter strike out. Odor, on a 1-0 count, sent a long fly ball to the right field corner off Nationals reliever Hunter Harvey to turn the 6-5 deficit into a 8-6 lead.
Cronenworth told MLB.com, “what we did in the ninth inning, to come back, string a bunch of quality at-bats together – it’s something we just need to grab onto.”
The Padres, already down a third baseman – Manny Machado, who is eligible to come off the injured list Friday, but appears to need more time for his fractured hand to heal – suffered another scare Thursday, this time with Ha-Seong Kim.
Kim fouled a ball off his knee in the second inning and had to leave the game. Early signs, though, according to manager Bob Melvin, are positive – X-rays didn’t show anything significant.
“It hurt bad,” Kim told MLB.com. “I’ll have to see how I feel the next day.”
The team now heads to New York to face the Yankees. Joe Musgrove gets the start Friday, followed by Michael Wacha and Yu Darvish.