San Diego Padres at Pittsburgh Pirates

· Major League Baseball

San Diego Padres

64-52, 34-23 Away

Final
7 - 6

Pittsburgh Pirates

56-58, 27-31 Home

Luis Arráez caps 3-run 9th with RBI double, Padres rally for 7-6 win and series sweep of Pirates

With San Diego down 5-4, Pirates closer David Bednar (3-4) gave up a single to Xander Bogaerts and walked Jackson Merrill to start the ninth inning before striking out David Peralta and walking Ha-Seong Kim to load the bases. Bogaerts scored on a grounder from Kyle Higashioka before Oneil Cruz tossed a double play attempt past first, letting Merrill score the go-ahead run.

Bednar, who gave up a tying home run to Merrill in the ninth inning of a 9-8 loss that went 10 innings on Wednesday, was pulled after Arráez tacked on what became the winning run with a double to right.

“That’s just unacceptable,” Bednar said. “The guys battle back both games, and it’s just a big-time letdown on my end. Today was incredibly frustrating, just a lot of free stuff, and that just can’t happen.”

San Diego has won five straight and 14 of 16 to move within 2 1/2 games of the Los Angeles Dodgers for the NL West lead.

“Great squad strikes again,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “Hunger for competition, hunger for winning games. Can't say enough about it. ... We take everything and give nothing away. That's what pure competition is about. Just looking to do that as consistently as possible.”

Jason Adam (6-2) gave up a lead-off single before retiring the next three in the eighth inning.

Robert Suarez was tagged by a two-out double from Joey Bart in the ninth ahead of an RBI single from Rowdy Tellez. Suarez then struck out Bryan De La Cruz on three pitches for his 25th save.

The Pirates have lost four in a row and six of seven. They led in five of the six losses and finished this homestand 1-5 against the Padres and the Arizona Diamondbacks.

“It’s extremely frustrating,” Pittsburgh manager Derek Shelton said. “Not to beat a dead horse, but we’ve got to figure out a way to finish them because we have the lead and we have to be able to execute to finish games out.”

Down 4-0, the Pirates scored three runs in the sixth inning.

Cruz opened the scoring with an RBI single to the right-center gap but was thrown out at second. Tellez and De La Cruz then hit two-out singles off Randy Vásquez to put runners on the corners. Carl Edwards Jr. entered, threw a wild pitch that brought in Tellez and allowed an RBI single to Ji Hwan Bae.

After Cruz’s third single of the day, Bart sent a 3-2 fastball from Yuki Matsui 419 feet to left-center for his ninth homer of the season for a 5-4 lead in the seventh.

“Just had to get to the end,” Shildt said. “Vásquez was really good, man. He was cruising. Then they started to put some good swings on him, started to get some good contact. But he more than did his job to help the bullpen and give us a chance to do what we did and that was win a ballgame.”

Manny Machado and Peralta each hit a two-run home run off Luis Ortiz in the first two innings for the Padres. Ortiz allowed four runs and four hits in six innings.

Vásquez gave up three runs and six hits in 5 2/3 innings.

“It was super important,” Vásquez said. “Really important for me, especially as a starter. That's my job, right? To go out there and eat as many innings as possible.”

TRAINER’S ROOM

Pirates: RHP Colin Holderman was placed on the 15-day injured list with a right wrist sprain. He has allowed 11 runs in 4 1/3 innings over his past five appearances, including three runs in the 10th inning Wednesday.

Padres: LHP Martín Pérez (2-5, 4.96 ERA) is in line to start the first of a three-game series in Miami on Friday, opposite Marlins RHP Edward Cabrera (2-3, 5.96).

Pirates: RHP Mitch Keller (10-5, 3.20) will take the mound Friday to begin a three-game series in Los Angeles against the Dodgers. RHP Jack Flaherty (8-5, 2.80) is expected to go for the Dodgers.

How can I watch San Diego Padres vs. Pittsburgh Pirates?

TV Channel: Padres at Pirates 2022 MLB Baseball, is broadcasted on MLBN.
Online streaming: Sign up for Fubo.

Matchup Prediction

Pirates: 49.1%

Padres: 50.9%

*According to ESPN's Basketball Power Index

Scoring Summary

	9th Inning	De La Cruz struck out swinging.
	9th Inning	Triolo ran for Tellez
	9th Inning	Tellez singled to left, Bart scored.
	9th Inning	Bart doubled to left.
	9th Inning	Cruz grounded out to second.
	9th Inning	Reynolds struck out swinging.

Statistics

SD		PIT
1	Games Played	1
1	Team Games Played	1
2	Hit By Pitch	1
12	Ground Balls	14
6	Strikeouts	7
6	Runs Batted In	5
0	Sacrifice Hit	0
7	Hits	12
1	Stolen Bases	0
3	Walks	3
0	Catcher Interference	0
7	Runs	6
0	Ground Into Double Play	0
0	Sacrifice Flies	0
34	At Bats	38
2	Home Runs	1
0	Grand Slam Home Runs	0
13	Runners Left On Base	15
0	Triples	0
1	Game Winning RBIs	0
0	Intentional Walks	0
1	Doubles	1
16	Fly Balls	17
0	Caught Stealing	0
157	Pitches	156
0	Games Started	0
1	Pinch At Bats	0
0	Pinch Hits	0
0.0	Player Rating	0.0
1	Is Qualified	1
1	Is Qualified In Steals	0
14	Total Bases	16
39	Plate Appearances	42
324.0	Projected Home Runs	162.0
3	Extra Base Hits	2
4.8	Runs Created	6.3
.206	Batting Average	.316
.000	Pinch Hit Average	.000
.412	Slugging Percentage	.421
.324	Secondary Average	.184
.308	On Base Percentage	.381
.719	OBP Pct + SLG Pct	.802
0.8	Ground To Fly Ball Ratio	0.8
4.8	Runs Created Per 27 Outs	6.6
42.0	Batter Rating	39.0
17.0	At Bats Per Home Run	38.0
1.00	Stolen Base Percentage	0.00
4.03	Pitches Per Plate Appearance	3.71
.206	Isolated Power	.105
0.50	Walk To Strikeout Ratio	0.43
.077	Walks Per Plate Appearance	.071
.118	Secondary Average Minus Batting Average	-.132
13.0	Runs Produced	11.0
0.9	Runs Ratio	0.8
0.5	Patience Ratio	0.5
0.2	Balls In Play Average	0.4
86.3	MLB Rating	90.8
0.0	Offensive Wins Above Replacement	0.0
0.0	Wins Above Replacement	0.0