Manny Machado’s seventh-inning sacrifice fly led the San Diego Padres to a 5-4 win over the Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday night. With the defeat, the Phillies have lost four of their past five games and dropped out of first place in the National League East, falling a half-game behind the New York Mets.
Phillies starter Zach Wheeler had one of his worst performances of the season, giving up four runs and six hits over six innings. It was only the third time this year that he’s allowed four runs or more. Leading up to Saturday’s game, Wheeler had allowed one run or fewer in six consecutive starts and nine of his past 10.
The Phillies built a 2-0 lead in the second inning on a Nick Castellanos RBI single, followed by a run-scoring double from J.T. Realmuto. San Diego tied the score in the bottom of the frame on a two-run homer by Jackson Merrill. The Padres then went on top, 3-2, on a RBI single from Martín Maldonado.
Philadelphia rallied to take a 4-3 lead in the fifth on a two-run single from Edmundo Sosa. That knocked out Padres starter Yu Darvish, who gave up four runs, five hits and two walks in 4 2/3 innings in his second appearance of the season.
Merrill once again tied the score with his second homer of the game. He connected with a 95 mph fastball from Wheeler, thrown high out of the strike zone but outside enough for Merrill to extend and pull the ball to right-center field.
The Padres took the lead for good in the seventh after Tanner Banks took over for Wheeler. Banks struck out Maldonado to begin the inning, but then allowed consecutive singles to Fernando Tatis Jr. and Luis Arraez. He was relieved by Jordan Romano, who left a 92.5 mph fastball down the middle of the strike zone for Machado to drive for what turned out to be his game-winning sacrifice fly.
Philadelphia had an opportunity to tie the score in the eighth when Realmuto singled, then advanced to third on a base hit from Otto Kemp. But Brandon Marsh popped up a Yuki Matsui fastball left right in the middle of the strike zone and couldn’t drive Realmuto in.
In the ninth, Jeremiah Estrada pitched a 1-2-3 ninth, retiring Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper for his third save of the season.
With the loss, the Phillies dropped to 54-41 and lost first place in the NL East for the first time since June 26. The Padres improved to 52-43, which keeps them 4.5 games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers (57-39), who got a 2-1 win over the San Francisco Giants (52-44) on Saturday.
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