WASHINGTON – The Padres did not begin the second half executing much differently than they generally did before the All-Star break.
Until the ninth inning, when they had to.
After losing their two-run lead in the eighth inning, the Padres scored five runs in the ninth to beat the Nationals 7-2 on Friday night.
The somewhat deceiving final score was courtesy of Manny Machado’s grand slam, the Padres’ first of the season.
“Too late,” Machado said of his home run. “We should have done it a little earlier.”
San Diego Padres’ Manny Machado celebrates with teammates in the dugout after he hits a grand slam against the Washington Nationals during the ninth inning of a baseball game at Nationals Park, Friday, July 18, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jess Rapfogel)
His assertion was in reference to the fact that before his blast the Padres emerged from four days off having to scratch and claw the way they have much of the season.
On Friday, they played excellent defense, took advantage of a bad team’s bad baserunning decisions and got mostly excellent work from their bullpen.
“A lot of good things to unpack that game,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “I liked pretty much every aspect of that game but one swing, really. I mean, that was a well-played baseball game on our side.”
That one swing was CJ Abrams’ game-tying two-run homer off Jason Adam in the eighth inning.
The Padres took a 3-2 lead when Jake Cronenworth and Jose Iglesias began the ninth inning with singles and Cronenworth scored on Elias Díaz’s second sacrifice bunt RBI of the night.
“We have to do everything to help the team win – play the small baseball,” Diaz said. “We need that to be in the playoffs and the World Series.”
Another thing they probably need to play deep into October is Friday’s version of Dylan Cease, who shut out the Nationals over 5⅓ innings.
“He has the potential to have a tremendous second half,” Machado said. “And be up there with a two ERA and competing for the Cy Young. That’s the type of stuff he has.”
The right-hander entered Friday’s game with a 4.88 ERA and had allowed at least four runs in four of his previous five starts and at least three runs in eight of his previous 10.
At the site of his 2024 no-hitter and working with Díaz behind the plate for the first time this season, Cease recorded multiple strikeouts in four of the first five innings and finished with 10 of them.
He got three groundouts, benefited from Díaz throwing out a runner trying to steal in the fourth inning and allowed just three singles.
Cease was also at 86 pitches entering the sixth inning, and the Padres led just 1-0. So after a flared single by Jacob Young and a fly out by Abrams to start the sixth pushed Cease to 94 pitches, Shildt went to left-hander Adrian Morejón to face fellow All-Star James Wood.
Padres starting pitcher Dylan Cease works against the Nationals on Friday. (AP Photo/Jess Rapfogel)
Morejón struck out Wood and ended the inning by getting Luis Garcia Jr. to ground out.
Jeremiah Estrada worked a scoreless seventh despite hitting the first batter and having the second batter reach on a check-swing single. Estrada’s escape was facilitated by Fernando Tatis Jr. catching a line drive by Brady House and throwing to third base to get Josh Bell, who had tried to tag up.
Adam came in and got a strikeout to start the eighth before Young singled and Abrams drove a 2-2 changeup over the wall in right-center field.
After a walk, an out and a single put runners at the corners, Shildt went to left-hander Wandy Peralta to face Nathaniel Lowe.
Peralta did not get the left-handed hitter out. He didn’t have to.
Before he let go of a 3-2 pitch, Bell took off from first base. Peralta stepped off the rubber, Bell stopped. Peralta threw to shortstop Xander Bogaerts, who ran down a retreating Bell to end the inning.
Lowe led off the ninth with a single before Peralta (4-1, 3.50) finished the game with a fly ball out and a double-play grounder to secure the win.
The Padres scored once against Nationals starter Michael Soroka (3-8, 5.10).
That came in the second inning when Jackson Merrill lined a one-out single to right field, Bogaerts followed with a single grounded through the left side and Cronenworth hit a sacrifice fly to left field.
Soroka was finished after five innings, which got the Padres into the major leagues’ worst bullpen (by the measure of its 5.88 ERA).
They ended up facing seven of the Nationals’ eight relievers and were able to piece together a run against two of them in the seventh inning.
Bogaerts began the inning by blooping a double down the right field line off left-hander Jose A. Ferrer. Bogaerts moved to third when Cronenworth laid down a bunt single that probably was not a sacrifice because Ferrer and catcher Riley Adams got in each other’s way going for the ball in front of the mound.
After Iglesias struck out, it was a sacrifice bunt by Díaz against Luis Garcia that brought in Bogaerts to make it 2-0.
Most of the game’s offense was still to come. But after all of it, the Padres improved to 53-44 and increased their cushion in the wild-card race to 1½ games.
“It’s a great way to start off the second half, for sure,” Machado said. “Great defensive game, great pitching performance. I think just an overall really good game to start off the second half to get us going.”
Originally Published: July 18, 2025 at 6:44 PM PDT