No matter how many good hitters it has in its lineup, every baseball team goes through a stretch where it struggles to score runs. The San Diego Padres were stuck in a string of 21 straight scoreless innings and in danger of losing three straight to the St. Louis Cardinals.
One swing from Ty France put a little jolt into the moribund bats.
France ripped a solo home run in the 5th inning to ignite a three run rally and lead the Padres to a 4-2 win over the Cardinals in front of another sold out crowd at Petco Park on Saturday evening. When France stepped in, St. Louis starter Dustin May was working on a no-hitter. The first pitch he threw to France landed 405 feet over the right-centerfield wall.
France’s 4th homer of the year seemed to ease the pressure on a struggling lineup. Sung-Mun Song followed with a walk, Freddy Fermin singled, and the mightily struggling Fernando Tatis Jr. finally had something go his way when he hit a flare into right field for a two-run single and a 3-1 San Diego lead.
St. Louis got one back in the 8th inning off Adrian Morejon but Manny Machado answered immediately with a solo shot, his 6th home run of the year to make it a 4-2 game and set up what turned into a more stressful 9th inning than we’re used to with Mason Miller on the mound.
Miller walked a pair and struck out two, then got catcher Yohel Pozo to go down swinging on a slider in the dirt … but the ball skipped away from Fermin, allowing Pozo to reach base on a wild pitch. So, Miller was in the unique position of striking out four batters in one inning.
He took full advantage of it, sitting down J.J. Wetherholt with a 102-MPH fastball and secure his 12th save of the year. The Padres can pull off a split of the four game series on Sunday afternoon with Walker Buehler on the mound against Kyle Leahy.