Ty France hit his career-high 21st home run of the season to cap a six-run fifth inning to help lead the San Diego Padres to an 8-2 win over the Miami Marlins at Petco Park on Friday night. The win by the Padres combined with losses by the Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies pulled them into a three-way tie for the top Wild Card spot in the National League standings. It also allowed San Diego to take a five-game lead over the Arizona Diamondbacks who lost to the New York Yankees. The caveat to all of that is the Cubs and Phillies hold the tie-breaker over the Padres so even though they all have the same record at 85-69, the Padres would still be in the third and final Wild Card spot if the season ended today.
The Padres were held to just two hits against Marlins starter Tyler Phillips, but he was pulled from the game in the bottom of the fourth inning with two outs in the inning. Cade Gibson came on in relief and struck out Jackson Merrill and the score remained 1-0 in favor of Miami. San Diego changed that when the team took its turn at-bat in the bottom of the fifth.
Xander Bogaerts stayed hot and led off with a double. Jake Cronenworth singled, prompting another pitching change by the Marlins. Samad Taylor reached on a bunt single to load the bases but Ethan Salas flied out to shallow center field for the first out of the inning. Fernando Tatis Jr. brought home Bogaerts with a single to right to tie the game at 1-1 before Dustin Harris hit a two-run single to give the Padres a 3-1 lead. Manny Machado lined out for the second out of the inning and it appeared San Diego was going to leave some runners one base. France ensured that did not happen when he hit a three-run home run to left field to put San Diego up, 6-1.
Miami added a run in the top of the eighth inning to make the score 6-2, but the Padres responded immediately in the bottom half of the eighth when Merrill connected on a solo home run to right field, giving him 26 on the year, and giving San Diego a 7-2 lead. Bogaerts, Cronenworth and Taylor followed with three consecutive singles to give the Padres an 8-2 lead as they cruised to the win.
Nick Pivetta started on the mound for the Padres and allowed a solo home run to Augustin Ramirez in the top of the third inning, but that was all he would allow. He completed five innings, allowing one run on four hits with a walk and four strikeouts. Pivetta needed just 76 pitches to complete his outing and turned the ball over to the bullpen. Wandy Peralta, David Morgan, Adrian Morejon and Griffin Canning combined to cover the final four innings and allowed one run on six hits with no walks and three strikeouts.
San Diego hosts Miami for Game 2 of their series today at 5:40 p.m.
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