Diamondbacks Rout Padres 11-4, Delaying San Diego's Home-Field Clinch
The short version
- Arizona beat San Diego 11-4 Friday at Petco Park to stay a game back of the final NL Wild Card spot.
- Casey Mize allowed seven runs and three home runs over four innings; Geraldo Perdomo drove in four.
- Brandon Pfaadt went 7 2/3 innings for the win, his eighth of the season.
- The Padres remain one win — or Cubs and Phillies losses — from clinching home field in the NL Wild Card Series.
- Walker Buehler starts Saturday's 5:40 p.m. game for San Diego.
Arizona stayed within a game of the last NL Wild Card spot with an 11-4 win at Petco Park, leaving the Padres still one victory shy of securing home field.
The Arizona Diamondbacks kept their postseason bid breathing Friday night, beating the San Diego Padres 11-4 at Petco Park. The loss denied San Diego a chance to wrap up home-field advantage for the National League Wild Card Series, and it dropped the Padres to 89-71 on the year.
Arizona jumped ahead immediately. Lars Nootbaar, acquired at the trade deadline, hit Mize's first pitch of the game over the wall in right-center for his eighth homer — the 11th consecutive game in which the Diamondbacks have gone deep. Gabriel Moreno followed with a single, Geraldo Perdomo lashed an RBI triple past Dustin Harris down the right-field line, and Corbin Carroll's sacrifice fly made it 3-0. It was the fifth straight game Arizona scored in the first inning, after multiple first-inning runs in all three of their wins at Colorado.
Jordan Lawlar added a solo shot in the second, his sixth of the season, a 334-foot drive that reached the Petco Porch. The Padres answered with two in the bottom of the inning on consecutive singles by Jackson Merrill and Xander Bogaerts, an RBI groundout from Luis Campusano and a run-scoring hit up the middle from Jake Cronenworth. But San Diego also ran into double plays in three of the first four frames, repeatedly erasing early rallies.
Casey Mize's night ended after four innings, charged with seven runs on seven hits — three of them home runs, tying his season high for homers allowed. He issued two walks against one strikeout. The biggest blow came in the third, when Nolan Arenado crushed a mistake slider into the second deck of the Western Metal Supply Co. building for a two-run shot, his 30th of the season, after Mize had walked Perdomo. Moreno's RBI single in the fourth pushed the margin to seven.
Arizona kept tacking on. Kyle Hart walked three straight batters with two outs in the sixth before Perdomo cleared the bases with a double to center that Merrill misplayed. Perdomo finished with four RBI, one of six Diamondbacks to drive in a run. Jason Adam survived a bases-loaded jam in the seventh, and the Padres got single runs back via Cronenworth's hustle on a potential double-play ball in the seventh and an RBI single from Sung-Mun Song off Ryne Nelson in the eighth.
Two spectacular catches shaped the late innings. Jase Bowen robbed Perdomo of a home run in straightaway center in the eighth, then repeated the feat in the ninth, leaping in left-center to take a homer away from Tim Tawa. Brandon Pfaadt earned the win for Arizona, allowing four runs on nine hits over 7 2/3 innings with seven strikeouts and two walks — his eighth victory and second at Petco Park this season.
Despite the defeat, San Diego's magic number for home field in the NL Wild Card Series remains one, helped by the Chicago Cubs sweeping a doubleheader loss at Boston and Philadelphia falling at home to Tampa Bay. The Padres can also clinch if the Cubs and Phillies each drop one more game. Arizona, now 86-74, sits a game behind the final NL Wild Card berth.
Walker Buehler (9-6, 4.56 ERA) gets the start for San Diego in Saturday's rematch at Petco Park. Arizona had not yet named its starter, with first pitch set for 5:40 p.m.
Global Sportscast viewers can catch the Diamondbacks at Padres on Saturday, September 26 at 8:40 PM EDT from Petco Park, airing on MLB.TV, Padres.TV and DBACKS.TV.
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