The San Diego Padres brought the winning run to the plate with two out in the bottom of the ninth inning against the Toronto Blue Jays. Xander Bogaerts stepped into the batter’s box with Jackson Merrill and Fernando Tatis Jr. on first and second base after the Padres recorded three consecutive two-out hits off Padres closer Louis Varland. Bogaerts worked the count full, but on the final pitch of the at-bat he hit a routine ground ball to third base, which resulted in the final out of the game to give San Diego a 5-3 loss at the hands of Toronto in their series opener at Petco Park on Friday night.
The Padres came into the bottom of the ninth trailing, 5-2. Jake Cronenworth pinch hit and struck out to open the inning and Luis Rengifo hit a deep fly ball into left field for the second out of the inning. Luis Campusano lined a ball back through the middle of the infield and Tatis followed with a line drive single through the right side of the infield. Merrill stepped in and connected on another base hit, which scored Campusano to cut the deficit to 5-3.
Bogaerts represented the winning run and Petco Park was waiting to erupt with a big hit from the San Diego shortstop. Bogaerts started the scoring in the game in the bottom of the first inning when he connected on a two-run home run off starter Shane Bieber to put the Padres up 2-0. Considering the speed of Tatis and Merrill and the fact that they were on the move on a 3-2 pitch, a base hit by Bogaerts might have tied the game, but it would have likely brought San Diego within a run with Manny Machado set to come to the plate. However, that was not how the 3-2 pitch played out. Instead, Bogaerts bounced a ground ball to Toronto third baseman Kazuma Okamoto who threw across the diamond in time to get Bogaerts to end the inning and the game.
Okamoto proved to have the game-winning hit for the Blue Jays in the top of the fifth inning. Padres starter JP Sears allowed two of the first three batters of the inning to reach base on singles and Jhony Brito came in to face Vladamir Guerrero Jr. Brito allowed an RBI-single and Toronto tied the game at 2-2. Brito then faced Okamoto who won a seven-pitch at-bat with a 377-foot three-run home run into the left field bleachers to give the Blue Jays a 5-2 lead.
San Diego will try to stop a two-game losing streak in the second game of the series against Toronto today at 5:40 p.m.
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