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Padres take advantage of Blue Jays' help to stop losing streak

Kevin Acee, The San Diego Union-Tribune on

Published in Baseball

SAN DIEGO — Mike Shildt took his second sip from a water bottle as he considered how the Padres had wound their way to a 6-3 victory over the Blue Jays at Petco Park.

"Well, my glass is more than half full," he said with a smile and a nod to the perspiring bottle in his hand. "I choose to look at the good stuff, and I'm not gonna ignore some of the things that didn't happen on the execution side that need to be cleaned up. That's fair. I do want to appreciate the fact that made some baseball plays in big situations."

The Padres played better Sunday, if in large part relatively, because they had spent portions of the previous two nights playing poorly.

They won, in large part because they ultimately took advantage of the Blue Jays returning some favors from the previous couple days and because Joe Musgrove and two relievers pitched well.

What Sunday's victory, which avoided a sweep and moved the Padres back to .500, really provided was a testament to what can happen when a team is not misplaying balls in the field and a starting pitcher is effective.

"You're always in a game if you pitch and play defense," Shildt said.

 

Musgrove allowed three runs on five hits in seven innings, departing with a 4-3 lead. Wandy Peralta worked a scoreless top of the eighth, and Robert Suarez worked a scoreless ninth for his seventh save.

With two outs in the sixth inning, the Padres broke a 2-2 tie and added what ended up being the decisive run on a walk and catcher interference call with the bases loaded. After the Blue Jays got back within one in the eighth, the Padres added two runs by capitalizing on the final three of their nine walks and getting a boost from two stolen bases by Ha-Seong Kim.

"We didn't cash in on our opportunities early," Jake Cronenworth said. "We did there at the end with some some really good at-bats."

The Padres' first run scored on an error by Blue Jays right fielder George Springer in the first inning, which ended with Jurickson Profar being picked off at second base with Kim at the plate and Manny Machado at third base.

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