Padres beat Nationals with another walk-off – San Diego Union-Tribune

The Padres may have to do it the hard way this season.

Maybe they agree with this fact.

They blew an early three-run lead, did nothing offensively through six innings, lost by three runs in the 10th, and came back to defeat the Nationals 7–6 on Jurickson Profar’s walk-off single, a single. There would have been a ground-rule. The double took care enough to touch second base.

“I don’t care,” said the professor, wondering why he wandered off to another location to attend a wild festival. “I care about the two that went home.”

Profar’s heroics were preceded by Donovan Solano’s double, which advanced runner Jacques Cronenworth to third. Jackson Merrill lined out a single to center to put the Padres ahead 6-5. Ha-Seong Kim walked, and pinch-hitter Tyler Wade advanced both runners with a sacrifice bunt, before David Peralta, also pinch-hitting, came out.

Peralta had barely finished slamming his bat on the ground when the Nationals signaled that they were intentionally walking Luis Aráez to load the bases and bring up Profar.

“I felt humiliated,” Proffer said.

“It’s your poison, and it’s a poison either way,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said about walking the National League’s sixth-leading hitter to face the league’s second-leading hitter.

Profar soon went 0-2 behind Hunter Harvey, who made his 10th start for the Nationals. The next pitch, a 98 mph fastball, passed his head and hit his back. He took another ball and then fouled off two more fastballs before running a splitter over the gap in right field.

As Merrill and Kim ran home and the Padres emerged from the dugout to celebrate their fourth walk-off win in their last seven home games, they had to run to third base to meet Profar, who tore off his helmet and hit the grass. Started running across. Shortly after rounding first base, the ball landed on the warning track and bounced over the wall.

After being cornered by the crowd in foul territory, Profar separated from his teammates and repeatedly raised his hands vigorously toward the crowd.

“There were two things,” he said of what made him even more excited than usual. “Walking and then it pitches up and to my face. It excited me a lot.”

All of this happened on a day when the Padres knew with certainty that they would be losing one of their biggest hitters for a long time and that they wouldn’t get one of their best starting pitchers back as soon as expected.

The Padres announced Monday that right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. was going on the injured list with a stress reaction in his right thigh, an injury that could keep him out for at least another month and maybe twice that (or more). Can be kept outside. It was also revealed that new elbow inflammation would prevent starting pitcher Yu Darvish from making his scheduled return from the injured list.

It’s not known how long Darvish will be out, but even a short delay puts pressure on a rotation that has been without Darvish and Joe Musgrove (elbow) for most of the season and has been without Dylan Cease and others for some time now. Getting bad results. Week.

Luckily for him, as everything is falling apart around him, Matt Waldron and his flapping knuckleball continue to provide him as much stability as he can.

On Monday, the right-hander made his fifth consecutive start, allowing two runs in six innings. In doing so, he became the fifth Padres pitcher to make nine consecutive starts in which he pitched at least five innings and allowed no more than two runs.

Waldron threw 97 pitches in five innings, mainly because he could not fully control his knuckleball and because the Nationals were as selective with pitches as any team has been this season.

After this he played the sixth inning on 10 pitches.

His ERA dropped three-hundredths of a point to 3.43 on the season. But he’s been so good recently – with the third-lowest ERA (1.82) in the majors in his last eight starts – that his outings have seemed pedestrian by comparison.

He went 3-2 with the Padres.

All three of the Padres’ runs came in the second inning, as they went up 3–0 on singles by Cronenworth and Solano in the beginning, an RBI single by Kim and a two-run double by Kyle Higashioka.

He got just one more hit from left-hander Patrick Corbin, who went seven innings for the first time this season and lowered his ERA to 5.46.

He also was hitless against two relievers, ultimately leaving 19 batters without a hit between Manny Machado’s single in the third inning and Solano’s double in the 10th.

The Nationals, who arrived in San Diego with a 38–39 record but the best mark (11–4) in the majors since June 7, got out with a pair of doubles in the third inning and some good fortune in the fifth.

A one-out double by CJ Abrams, one of the former No. 1 prospects whom the Padres traded to Washington for Juan Soto in 2022, and a two-out double by Joey Maness got the Nationals on the board.

They went ahead 3–2 in the fifth when Waldron homered off No. 9 batter Jacob Young and singled to Abrams. Waldron struck out Lane Thomas and Jesse Winker, but the Nationals committed a double steal on Winker’s strikeout, and Abrams scored when Maness dribbled a ball down the third base line that Waldron picked up but made no play. was not.

The Nationals tied the game in the seventh against Morejón.

Abrams got his third hit, a one-out single, and stole second during Thomas’ strikeout. It appeared the inning would end on Winker’s grounder to Cronenworth at second base. Cronenworth fielded the ball going to his right, turned and the ball slipped out of his hand and inevitably rolled toward first base. Winker was safe, and Maness hit the next pitch down the left field line to score Abrams.

“I was pretty mad after the hit,” Cronenworth said. “This is the craziest I’ve felt in a long time.”

With a runner on second base to start the 10th, De Los Santos got two outs before giving up an RBI double to Keibert Ruiz and a two-run homer to Nick Senzel, making the score 6–3.

Just when it seemed the postgame fireworks show was the only thing worth seeing, the Padres began attacking again.

“We have to explore a lot of different approaches,” Schilt said. “As I talk, winners find solutions. We have to play with the club we have – which I like – and use the skill set required depending on the situation. So we did things a little differently to suit the demands of the game. …I mean, we’ll miss our boy. We will support him as much as we have others who have not been with us.

“They have been great teammates. They’re out there cheering for us like crazy. Tati came over to me because I think he knew I liked popcorn and he gave me some Rally Popcorn. Actually in the ninth, and we took it to the 10th. But it was very good. “We have to figure out a way to win games and there are a lot of different ways to do it.”