A truly gorgeous afternoon in downtown San Diego brought 45,114 fans to Petco Park on Independence Day to see the Padres play the Texas Rangers. By the time the 10th inning rolled around very few of them had left.

They made the right choice in sticking around. Jake Cronenworth delivered a walkoff knock in the bottom of the 10th to give the Padres a 3-2 win to start their 10-game homestand that will take them all the way into the All-Star break.

The Rangers got on the board in the 3rd inning with help from a rare Fernando Tatis Jr. defensive miscue. Marcus Semien hit a liner to the gap. Tatis Jr. got there in time but misjudged the route and the ball sailed right over his head for a two-run double and a 2-0 Texas lead. That was the only blemish on Randy Vasquez’s resume. The righty got through 6.0 innings and allowed just three hits.

It took All-Star starter Manny Machado one swing to cut the lead in half. In the bottom of the 4th, Machado hit a 109 MPH missile 440 feet over the centerfield wall off Rangers starter Kumar Rocker, his 14th homer of the year. Manny also singled, bringing him just three hits shy of 2,000 for his career.

San Diego tied it in the 6th when Tatis Jr. led off with a triple off the right field wall (aided by some lackluster defense “effort” by Adolis Garcia) and scored on a Luis Arraez single. They had a chance to do more damage, loading the bases with one out … only to have Xander Bogaerts and Cronenworth strike out to end the threat.

Jeremiah Estrada, Jason Adam, and Robert Suarez kept it tied 2-2 through the top of the 9th. Granite Hills High School alum Trenton Brooks hit a flare down the left field line that 3rd baseman Josh Smith couldn’t quite get to. Brooks hustled into 2nd base with his second double of the day. He was replaced by pinch-runner Tyler Wade but the speedy utility man never moved. Jose Iglesias flew out to left, Tatis Jr. was walked intentionally, and Jackson Merrill popped out to 3rd base and we were off to extra innings.

Adrian Morejon kept the Rangers off the board in the top half, setting the stage for Cronenworth’s heroics. Texas reliever Robert Garcia intentionally walked Machado, struck out Arraez, and allowed a bloop single to Gavin Sheets to load the bases. With two outs Jake hit a flare down the right field line to bring home Merrill with the Padres fourth walkoff win of the year.

The Padres can win the series on Saturday night with Stephen Kolek on the mound against Jack Leiter.