![\"Xander](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/SUT-L-padres-0712-017.jpg\")
Xander Bogaerts #2 of the San Diego Padres singles against the Philadelphia Phillies during the sixth inning at Petco Park on Friday, July 11, 2025 in San Diego, CA. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\nMike Shildt\u2019s team was hanging onto a one-run lead when he went to the bullpen in the fifth inning Friday night.<\/p>\n
That meant, without an offensive awakening, the Padres manager was again about to ask his four most trusted relievers to go to work again.<\/p>\n
They were up to the task.<\/p>\n
Again.<\/p>\n
Jeremiah Estrada, Adri\u00e1n Morej\u00f3n, Jason Adam and Robert Suarez each turned in scoreless frames, Manny Machado\u2019s 17th home run provided eighth-inning insurance and a 4-2 win over the Phillies gave the Padres back-to-back wins for the first time since June 24-25.<\/p>\n
The Padres improved to 15-5 when the entirety of their \u201cFour Horsemen\u201d pitch, and they\u2019ve all pitched in each of the team\u2019s last five wins.<\/p>\n
Which means, as often as they pitch, it\u2019s imperative that the Padres get something when Shildt calls on his end-game formation.<\/p>\n
Especially when it means their availability is in question for Saturday\u2019s match-up with Zack Wheeler.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s almost vital if we\u2019re going to use that capital,\u201d Shildt said. \u201cKnowing those guys are going to be compromised for tomorrow, you\u2019ve got to win them. You\u2019ve got to get them in the boat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Xander Bogaerts #2 of the San Diego Padres singles against the Philadelphia Phillies during the sixth inning at Petco Park on Friday, July 11, 2025 in San Diego, CA. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
They did Friday because they did just enough off Phillies ace Ranger Suarez. Because Fernando Tatis Jr. threw out a runner at second base and had the threat of his right arm stop another Philadelphia rally. Because rookie Ryan Bergert was just good enough in his return from the injured list. Because baseball\u2019s second-best bullpen, buoyed by a history-making three All-Stars, bent but did not break.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wish that we could give them more so they could sit down and relax a little bit,\u201d Tatis said after going 2-for-3 with an RBI, a walk and his 20th steal of the season. \u201cThey are going out there as a group and just competing as a whole group. It\u2019s beautiful to see them lock in and save the lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat they are doing is really special.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Manny](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/SUT-L-padres-0712-027.jpg\")
Manny Machado #13 of the San Diego Padres hits a home run against the Philadelphia Phillies during the eighth inning at Petco Park on Friday, July 11, 2025 in San Diego, CA. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
Machado\u2019s eighth-inning homer, his 100th at Petco Park, provided just enough breathing room for Suarez to record his MLB-leading 28th save to give a sell-out crowd of 43,856 one last thing to cheer.<\/p>\n
Estrada\u2019s and Morej\u00f3n\u2019s appearances were also without incident, the latter improving his career-best scoreless streak to 15\u2153 innings hours after he joined Adam and Suarez on the NL\u2019s All-Star roster.<\/p>\n
Adam\u2019s eighth inning, however, was filled with drama after a walk to Trea Turner to open the frame. A pair of two-out singles loaded the bases, with the speedy Turner thinking better of attempting to run on Tatis after Alec Bohm\u2019s single to right field.<\/p>\n
Three innings earlier, Tatis had helped Bergert navigate traffic by one-hopping Bryson Stott\u2019s line drive to left and throwing out J.T. Realmuto at second base.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a shutdown arm in the outfield,\u201d Shildt said. \u201cIt\u2019s just a special skillset.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Jason](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/SUT-L-padres-0712-026.jpg\")
Jason Adam #40 of the San Diego Padres celebrates after Max Kepler #17 of the Philadelphia Phillies popped up to end the first half of the eighth inning at Petco Park on Friday, July 11, 2025 in San Diego, CA. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
The threat of Tatis\u2019 arm in the eighth gave Adam the option of an out at any base and he went home for the second out \u00a0of the eighth when Nick Castellanos tapped ball in front of the plate. Max Kepler then popped out to end the inning.<\/p>\n
Bergert\u2019s seven strikeouts were one shy of a career high. He allowed both home runs on solo shots from Nick Castellanos and Kyle Schwarber, surrendered two total hits and walked two over 4\u2154 innings.<\/p>\n
Yuki Matsui walked Schwarber to load the bases after replacing Bergert in the fifth inning, but he fetched an inning-ending grounder from Bryce Harper to maintain a 3-2 lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I did pretty well,\u201d Bergert said in his first start since a comebacker off his forearm on June 24 sent him to the injured list. \u201cObviously the two homers sucks but solo shots don\u2019t hurt you too bad. But I was happy to get back out there and get in the swing of things. Obviously I would have like to have gone longer, but kind of shot myself in the foot with that one \u2026 but the trust in that bullpen is enormous.\u201d<\/p>\n
A one-inning hiccup was enough to get on top of Ranger Suarez early.<\/p>\n
Xander Bogaerts began a three-hit day with a leadoff single.<\/p>\n
Because Jackson Merrill doesn\u2019t have a hit since July 5, he looked to bunt Bogaerts to second. But Suarez threw wildly to first, putting runners on the corners.<\/p>\n
Jose Iglesias followed with a run-scoring double, Elias D\u00edaz plated a run with a groundout and Tatis singled to right-center to open up a 3-1 lead.<\/p>\n
The Padres were smart to strike when they did.<\/p>\n
Suarez allowed just three more hits before his exit with two outs in the seventh inning\u2014 two more singles from Bogaerts and Tatis\u2019 broken-bat, two-out singles to put runners on the corners and chase the Phillies\u2019 left-hander from the game after 96 pitches.<\/p>\n
Phillies manager Thomson replaced Suarez with another left-hander, Tanner Banks, and Luis Arraez grounded out to end the inning.<\/p>\n
Suarez finished with five strikeouts. He allowed six hits and three walks.<\/p>\n
Two of his three runs being unearned after his own error on Merrill\u2019s bunt \u2014 not to mention catcher J.T. Realmuto throwing wildly to second on Tatis\u2019 20th steal \u2014 lowered his ERA to 1.94 on the season.<\/p>\n
Originally Published: July 11, 2025 at 9:09 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mike Shildt\u2019s team was hanging onto a one-run lead when he went to the bullpen in the fifth…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":58915,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,1370,1266,3549,1306,7264,62,7289,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-58914","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-san-diego-padres","15":"tag-sandiego","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-top-stories-sdut","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114838866966925373","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}