In their previous four baseball games the Padres offense had only scored six total runs. That makes what happened in the 8th inning Saturday night at Petco Park all the more remarkable.
San Diego scored five times in the 8th in a come-from-behind 7-3 win over the Tigers. The Friars can sweep the Motor City Kitties on Sunday afternoon.
The Padres got on the board in the 3rd inning when Dinelson Lamet bunted right back to Tigers starter Anibal Sanchez, who threw wide of 3rd base trying to cut down Chase d’Arnaud. The ball sailed down the left field line and d’Arnaud scored to make it 1-0.
The bad news is the reason d’Arnaud was in the game. Allen Cordoba is probably out for a while. Cordoba, a Rule 5 draftee who had worked his way in to steady playing time in the outfield and was getting more reps at his natural shortstop position, was hit on the hand by a Sanchez pitch. The Padres are calling it a left hand contusion but Cordoba was in obvious pain as he left the field.
Detroit got a pair of runs off Lamet in the 5th inning on an RBI double and a groundout and the Padres tied it again in the 6th when Wil Myers brought in Jose Pirela with a sacrifice fly.
In the 7th inning Justin Upton led off with a double and manager Andy Green decided to go get Lamet, who had only thrown 78 pitches and struck out five. In came fellow rookie Phil Maton, who gave up a weakly hit infield single to Nicholas Castellanos and a line drive single to Andrew Romine that brought in Upton to give the Tigers a 3-2 lead.
Maton got the next three hitters in order to keep it a 1-run game, which was important because Detroit has the worst bullpen ERA in the Major Leagues and the Padres made it worse.
In the 8th Hector Sanchez detonated a Shane Green pitch for a 2-run, pinch-hit home run and a 4-3 lead. Then the Friars piled on. A single and two walks loaded the bases and Cory Spangenberg dumped a single to right field to bring in two more runs.
Just to be sure it was out of reach catcher Austin Hedges bunted for a base hit that allowed Hunter Renfroe (who had walked) to score with the final run of the game.
Clayton Richard tries to complete the sweep on Sunday against Detroit right-hander Jordan Zimmermann.
