They've been making comebacks all season long. Tonight's 11-9 come-from-behind win may be the beginning of their best comeback yet.
The Padres lost game one of their Wild Card Series 7-4 to the Cardinals, and trailed 6-2 in the sixth inning Thursday night. After a listless start to the postseason the Padres finally got a spark in the sixth inning of game two.
And it came from their MVP candidate.
With the Padres trailing 6-2, Fernando Tatis Jr. lifted a three-run homer off of Genesis Cabrera to make it a one-run game.
After seeing the young phenom breathe life into his team, Manny Machado followed with a game-tying bomb, to tie the score. They are the first pair to hit back-to-back homers in Padres postseason history.
Wil Myers gave the team its first lead of the series, launching a solo shot over the left field fence to lead off the seventh inning.
Then Tatis belted an opposite field two-run blast to give the Padres a 9-6 lead. He became the third player in Padres history to have a multi-homer game in the playoffs. The 21-year-old also became the third youngest player to go yard twice in a postseason game, trailing Carlos Correa and Andruw Jones. He is also just the 18th player in MLB Postseason history to hit home runs in consecutive innings.
After giving up a pair of sacrifice flies in the eighth inning, Myers provided some needed insurance with a two-run swing in the bottom half of the frame to put the Padres ahead 11-8.
Tatis and Myers became the second duo to hit multiple homers in the same playoff game since Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig did so for the 1932 Yankees.
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Trevor Rosenthal sealed the win, but not without a little drama. Paul Goldschmidt hit a leadoff homer to cut their deficit to two runs. Rosenthal stranded two runners to avoid a letdown.
Just as they did in their 7-4 game one loss, the team found itself in an early hole. Zach Davies gave up four runs in just two innings of work, including a two-run homer off the bat of Kolten Wong.
Davies needed 30 pitches to get through the first inning, allowing one run in the opening frame. The righty was as steady as any of the Padres pitchers, carrying a 2.73 ERA into the postseason. He didn't allow more than three earned runs in any of his 12 regular season starts, and at one point had a stretch of five straight wins.
The win evens the series at one game apiece. A spot in the National League Division Series will be up for grabs in game three on Friday.
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