CM – Padres offense takes place late to win extra rounds

Skin rashes. Low score games. Doubles in 7 sleeves. Additional sleeve cases. Great trails early. Late returns. The Padres won them all.

They used a late home run and an 11th inning blitzkrieg to beat the Astros 10-3 on Friday night, winning Game 1 of a 3-game series in Houston. The brothers have won 15 of their last 18 games to improve on Major League Baseball’s best record.

In the regular nine innings attack, it was hard to find. Tommy Pham hit a solo home run in the 3rd inning to put the Padres 1-0. In 2020, that might have been enough for Dinelson Lamet to secure the victory. It is not yet there in 2021.

The right-hander who finished 4th in the poll for the National League’s Cy Young Award a year ago has taken slow steps coming back from an elbow injury. He pitched three shutout innings and then came out to start the 4th, making it his longest outing of the year.

Carlos Correa made a single and Chas McCormick hit a 2-run homer to put Houston forward 2-1 and chase Lamet. As has been done so many times this year, the San Diego bullpen was exceptional.

Nick Ramirez, Austin Adams, Nabil Crismatt and Tim Hill combined for 6.0 shutout innings, allowing just two more hits. They kept him close and finally the bats broke through.

In the 8th inning, Fernando Tatis Jr. demolished a solo home run to Cristian Javier’s left field. It’s the 14th of the year for Tatis and, as expected, he lit up the Padres’ canoe.

He went to the 10th inning tied 2-2. Pham started the round on 2nd base and Manny Machado tied up a brace on the straight pitch to bring him home and put the Brothers in the top 3-2.

Mark Melancon, the closest who converted his 17 stoppage chances since joining the Friars field, was unable to do so. Alex Bregman started second, advanced on a groundout and scored on a sacrificed volley in shallow right field. Wil Myers had a chance to finish with a double play, but his pitch was well up the first baseline, so he went to the 11th inning tied 3-3.

Ha-Seong Kim dropped a single down right field to bring Jurickson Profar to 4-3. Pham followed with a single right to score Victor Caratini for a 5-3 lead. Jake Cronenworth, mired in a 0-for-18 collapse, slipped a hard ground ball into the infield to attack Kim, then it all fell apart for the Astros.

Tatis hit a sacrificed fly to mark Machado for a 7-3 lead. Myers followed with a 2-point brace and Jurckson Profar finished the scoring with another RBI single to top the scoring and a decisive 11th inning of 7 points.

The Padres can win another series on Saturday when Yu Darvish starts against Jae Odorizzi.

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