This story was originally published by Dead Spin
Fernando Tatis Jr. singled with two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning Wednesday night to score Jackson Merrill as the San Diego Padres rallied from a 5-0 deficit to edge the visiting Detroit Tigers 6-5.
Merrill was placed on second to start the inning. After Elias Diaz grounded out and Mason McCoy looked at a third strike, Luis Arraez was intentionally walked. Tatis grounded a 1-0 pitch from Jason Foley (3-5) into left field and Merrill scored.
Jeremiah Estrada (5-2) pitched a scoreless 10th inning for the win as San Diego (80-61) maintained a half-game lead over Arizona for the National League’s first wild-card spot. It also moved within 4 1/2 games of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West after their 10-1 loss at the Los Angeles Angels.
Tatis finished with two hits in his second game back after missing more than two months with a stress reaction in his right leg. Another high-profile Padre, Yu Darvish, made it back to the mound for his first game in more than three months.
Making his first start since May 29, Darvish flashed good velocity but didn’t have pinpoint location. Matt Vierling tagged him for a two-out solo homer in the first, his 16th of the year.
Detroit made it 2-0 in the second on an RBI groundout by Dillon Dingler, then scored again in the third via Colt Keith’s two-out RBI single to right. That chased Darvish after 2 2/3 innings and 63 pitches. He gave up four hits and three runs with two walks and four strikeouts.
Trey Sweeney made it 5-0 for the Tigers in the fourth with a towering two-run homer to right off Yuki Matsui, his second. But starter Keider Montero couldn’t hold the lead, victimized by two big swings.
In the San Diego fourth, Merrill ambushed a first-pitch fastball, driving it an estimated 372 feet into the seats in left-center field for his 22nd homer with two runners aboard. An inning later, Manny Machado equalized the game at 5 with a two-run single to left.
Montero left after 4 1/3 innings, seven hits and five runs. He walked two and fanned two.
Detroit (70-70) fell 5 1/2 games behind Kansas City for the American League’s third wild-card spot.
–Field Level Media
