The Padres may have to do it the hard way this season.
Perhaps they are resigned to this fact.
They blew an early three-run lead, did absolutely nothing offensively for six innings, were down three runs in the 10th, and came back to beat the Nationals 7-6 on Jurickson Profar’s single that would have been a game-rule. base. double if he had cared enough to hit second base.
“I don’t care,” Profar said of why he swerved before reaching second place to participate in a wild celebration. “I care about those two who went home.”
Profar’s exploits were preceded by a double from Donovan Solano, which moved automatic runner Jakes Cronenworth to third. Jackson Merrill followed with a lineout single to center that made it 6-5. Ha-Seong Kim walked and pinch hitter Tyler Wade advanced both runners with a sacrifice bunt before David Peralta, also a pinch hitter, popped out.
Peralta had barely finished slamming his bat to the ground when the Nationals signaled that they were intentionally walking Luis Arraez to load the bases and bring up Profar.
“I didn’t feel respected,” Profar said.
“It’s a poison pick, and it’s poison either way,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said of the National League’s sixth-best hitter to face the league’s second-best hitter .
Profar quickly fell behind 0-2 to Hunter Harvey, who had started the 10th for the Nationals. The next pitch, a 98 mph fastball, sailed near his head and knocked him down his back. He took another pitch, then fouled two more fastballs before driving a splitter to the gap in right field.
As Merrill and Kim headed home and the Padres came out of the dugout to celebrate their fourth win in their last seven home games, they had to go to third base to encounter Profar, who ripped off his helmet and started running on the grass. shortly after rounding first base, as the ball landed on the warning track and bounced over the wall.
After being mobbed into foul territory, Profar broke away from his teammates and repeatedly raised his hands emphatically toward the crowd.
“There were two things,” he said of what made him even more exuberant than usual. “The walk and then this wheelie up to my face. This motivated me a lot.
All of this happened on the day the Padres learned with certainty that they would lose one of their biggest bats for an extended period of time and not get one of their best starting pitchers back as soon as expected.
The Padres announced Monday that right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. was placed on injured reserve with a stress reaction in his right femur, an injury that is expected to keep him out for at least another month and possibly two times longer (or more). It was also revealed that new elbow inflammation would prevent starting pitcher Yu Darvish from making his planned return from the injured list.
It’s unclear how long Darvish will be out, but even a short delay highlights a rotation that has been without Darvish and Joe Musgrove (elbow) for much of the season and has gotten uneven results from Dylan Cease and others in recent years. weeks.
Luckily for them, while everything else is collapsing around him, Matt Waldron and his floating knuckleball continue to provide all the stability possible.
On Monday, the right-hander made his fifth consecutive quality start, allowing two runs in six innings. In doing so, he became the fifth Padres pitcher to have nine consecutive starts in which he went at least five innings and allowed no more than two runs.
Waldron had thrown 97 pitches in five innings, largely because he couldn’t really control his knuckleball and because the Nationals were as selective with the pitch as any team has been this season.
He then made it through the sixth inning on 10 pitches.
His ERA dropped three-hundredths of a point to 3.43 this season. But he’s been so good lately — with the third-lowest ERA (1.82) in the majors over his last eight starts — that his outing seemed mundane by comparison.
He left with the Padres 3-2.
The Padres’ three runs came in the second inning, as they led 3-0 on leadoff singles by Cronenworth and Solano and an RBI single by Kim and a two-run double by Kyle Higashioka.
They got just one more hit off left-hander Patrick Corbin, who went seven innings for the first time this season and lowered his ERA to 5.46.
They would also go hitless against two relievers, ultimately going 19 batters without a hit between Manny Machado’s single in the third inning and Solano’s double in the 10th.
The Nationals, arriving in San Diego with a 38-39 record but the best mark (11-4) in the majors since June 7, had two doubles in the third inning and a bit of luck in the fifth.
A one-out double by CJ Abrams, one of the former No. 1 prospects the Padres traded to Washington in 2022 for Juan Soto, and a two-out double by Joey Maneses put the Nationals on the board .
They got within 3-2 in the fifth when Waldron hit No. 9 hitter Jacob Young and gave up a single to Abrams. Waldron struck out Lane Thomas and Jesse Winker, but the Nationals executed a double steal on Winker’s putout, and Abrams scored when Maneses dribbled a ball down the third base line that Waldron recovered but did not not played.
The Nationals tied the game in the seventh against Morejón.
Abrams got his third hit, a one-out single, and stole second on Thomas’ strikeout. It looked like the inning would end on Winker’s grounder to Cronenworth to second base. Cronenworth fielded the ball while moving to his right, turned and slipped the ball out of his hand and essentially rolled to first base. Winker was safe and Maneses hit the next pitch on a line drive to left field to score Abrams.
“I was so angry after the hit,” Cronenworth said. “This is the craziest moment I’ve had 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 that made it 6-3.
Just when it seemed like a postgame fireworks display was all there was to hope for, the Padres started striking again.
“We have to find a lot of different ways,” Shildt said. “As I said, winners find solutions. We have to play with the club we have – which I like – and use the skills required according to the situation. So we did things a little differently than what the game required. …I mean, we’re going to miss our guy. We’re going to support him as hard as we have the other guys who haven’t been with us as much.
“They’ve been great teammates. They’re out there cheering us on like crazy. Tati came up to me because I think he knows I love popcorn and he gave me some rally popcorn. Actually, in the ninth, and we carried it over to the 10th. But it was awesome. We’ve got to find a way to win games and there’s a lot of different ways to do that.”