Brandon Dixon triggered a seven-run eighth inning by breaking up a scoreless tie with a RBI double on Monday as the San Diego Padres defeated the visiting San Francisco Giants 7-4.
The Giants scored four runs in the ninth and had the bases loaded before Padres closer Josh Hader retired J.D. Davis on a deep fly to right to seal his 36th save.
The Padres (88-72) remained one game ahead of Philadelphia (87-73) in the race for the No. 2 National League wild-card berth. The Phillies clinched a playoff bid earlier Monday night by beating the Houston Astros 3-0. Both San Diego and Philadelphia have two games left in the regular season, and the Phillies own the head-to-head tiebreaker.
Five of the Padres’ runs in the eighth were charged to Giants reliever Shelby Miller. However, the big blows came against Jarlin Garcia: a two-run double by Jake Cronenworth followed by a three-run homer by Wil Myers.
Trent Grisham opened the bottom of the eighth with a line-drive double off the glove of Giants first baseman J.D. Davis. Dixon, who hit 13 homers in 22 games for Triple-A El Paso in September, then lined a double to left off Miller for his first Padres hit, driving home Grisham.
Miller retired Ha-Seong Kim on a grounder for the first out before issuing three straight walks. The pass to Juan Soto was intentional before Miller walked Brandon Drury and Josh Bell to force in Dixon and make it 2-0.
Garcia replaced Miller and served up the double to Cronenworth just ahead of Myers’ sixth homer of the season.
The Giants immediately loaded the bases with no outs in the ninth when reliever Tim Hill walked the first two hitters he faced and hit the third. Brandon Crawford hit a two-run single before David Villar was hit by a pitch.
One out later, Joey Bart’s two-run single prompted the Padres to replace Hill with Hader. Austin Slater fanned for the second out before Hader plunked Wilmer Flores with a pitch. Davis then flied out to the warning track down the line in right.
Adrian Morejon (5-1) allowed a hit and a walk with two strikeouts in two scoreless innings. Miller (0-1) gave up five runs on two hits and three walks with a strikeout in 1 1/3 innings.
Padres starter Joe Musgrove held the Giants scoreless on two hits and two walks with seven strikeouts over six innings.
For the 10th time this season, right-hander John Brebbia started for the Giants (80-80) as an “opener” and allowed no runs for the 10th time. Sean Hjelle followed and worked five scoreless innings, allowing four hits and a walk with eight strikeouts.
–Field Level Media
