Surging Padres need extra innings, but pull off sweep of Giants

SAN FRANCISCO — The San Diego Padres won a game that got them closer to wrapping up a postseason spot.

They did it in a familiar manner, overcoming whatever might have tripped them up and winning in extra innings.

“This team is on a mission, and we definitely want to get there,” Fernando Tatis Jr. said. “This is just what it takes for us to get there. So keep it with the same mentality, same approach, and coming every single day just to win.”

They did that in the end Sunday by scoring two runs off Camilo Doval in the 10th inning and getting a save from Adrián Morejón to close out a 4-3 victory that completed a three-game sweep of the Giants.

“It was huge, especially how close the standings are right now,” Tatis said of the three victories at Oracle Park.

The Padres remain 1 1/2 games ahead of the Diamondbacks in the race for the National League’s top wild-card spot and, pending the outcome of Sunday night’s game between the Dodgers and Braves, moved to within three games of the NL West-leading Dodgers.

But what you do with playoff teams is fret about all the things that could potentially derail a championship run.

The Padres were three outs from a pretty perfect victory when a reason to fret cropped up. Again.

The Padres had manufactured a run in the sixth inning and, after the Giants tied the game in the bottom of the sixth, got a go-ahead pinch-hit home run from Tatis in the eighth. And they were riding their higher-leverage relievers through three innings until closer Robert Suarez allowed a game-tying homer in the ninth.

On Suarez’s seventh pitch, a 3-2 fastball at 100.2 mph, Heliot Ramos sent a fly ball the other way, over the tall brick facade in right field and into the San Francisco Bay. It was the first-ever “splash” hit by a right-handed batter in Oracle Park’s 25 seasons.

A strong wind helped the ball to its historic landing spot, but the homer was just the latest of Suarez’s troubles.

Sunday was his second blown save in his past three opportunities. On Sept. 5, he allowed an opposite-field grand slam to Austin Meadows, the Tigers’ No.9 hitter.

Suarez, whose 59 innings this season are 31⅓ more than he threw in 2023 and his most since throwing 62 1/3 in Japan in 2021, has not had a clean outing in any of his past eight appearances. And he has a 6.14 ERA over his past 14 games (14 2/3 innings).

This after he blew just two of his first 34 save opportunities and had a 1.42 ERA through his first 44 appearances (44 1/3 innings).

“Human,” manager Mike Shildt said of what he has seen from Suarez lately. “He was basically (better than) human the first however many parts of the season. The ball is coming out good. … Give credit to (Ramos), put a good swing and put a good at-bat together. They’re just catching up balls to take some opposite-field shots. That’s a hard thing to do, and they’ve been able to do it. But you know, he’s throwing 99, 100, 101. Stuff is really good.

“It’s part of the game. Over course of the season, you’re going to give up a few balls to get barreled, and it’s going to be showing up when you pitch the ninth inning. … But I will take him tomorrow in a one-run game. I can tell you that.”

Until the ninth, all was working well for the Padres.

On the only pitch he saw Sunday, Tatis ripped a go-ahead home run leading off the eighth inning for his first career pinch-hit homer.

Rookie right-hander Landen Roupp, making his second career start after spending most of the season in the bullpen, held the Padres scoreless for five innings before they broke through against Spencer Bivens, a rookie who limited the Padres to a run in 4 1/3 innings a week earlier in his second start after spending most of the season in the bullpen.

Luis Arraez led off the sixth against Bivens with a single flared into shallow center field and moved to second on a grounder by Donovan Solano that Giants first baseman Mark Canha flubbed. Both runners moved up on Jurickson Profar’s sacrifice bunt and moved another 90 feet apiece on Manny Machado’s sacrifice fly.

The game was tied two pitches into the bottom of the sixth, as Padres starter Martín Pérez left a curveball up in the zone that Walton, the Giants’ No.9 hitter, launched 408 feet to center field.

Pérez, who welcomed a twin boy and girl to the world on Wednesday, was 69 pitches into his first game in 10 days, and the Padres’ higher-leverage relievers were rested. So Shildt had already planned to pull the left-hander after facing the left-handed-hitting Walton.

He brought in Jeremiah Estrada to face the top of the Giants order, stacked with four right-handed batters. Estrada struck out the first two batters he faced before Matt Chapman grounded a double off Solano’s glove at first base. The inning ended on a fly ball to center field by Jerar Encarnacion.

Tanner Scott issued a one-out walk in the seventh before getting out of the inning with a strikeout and catcher Elías Díaz throwing out Marco Luciano trying to steal second.

Tatis then pinch-hit for Díaz, sending a sinker from Tyler Rogers a projected 400 feet to the seats beyond left-center field.

Jason Adam retired the Giants in order in the eighth.

In the 10th, David Peralta’s lead-off single scored automatic runner Jake Cronenworth to make it 3-2. Peralta moved to third on Arraez’s double and scored on a fielder’s choice grounder by Solano. Then Morejón retired the Giants in order, with the automatic runner moving from second to home on the first two outs.

With that, the Padres had their ninth victory in 10 extra-inning games. It also made them 30-22 in games in which they lost a lead at some point. Last season, they were 2-12 in extra innings and 18-133 in games in which they lost a lead.

“You know, when you’re going to compete, regardless of a certain situation, you’re going to always be in ballgames,” Shildt said. “You’re not going to take anything for granted, not going to give anything away. You’re going to take everything that you have an opportunity to do in competition. It’s just a hungry group that loves to play baseball and loves to compete.”

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