D-Backs nail runner at plate for the final out

PHOENIX – Speedy Padres pinch runner Jorge Mateo was thrown out at the plate trying to score from first base on a single to end the game Saturday night, and the Arizona Diamondbacks held off San Diego 7-6.

The Padres nearly completed a late rally after trailing 7-1. San Diego scored twice in the eighth, then scored three times in the ninth.

With two outs, Mateo got a head start by trying to steal second when Jurickson Profar lined a single through the infield. Center fielder Starling Marte quickly made the relay to second baseman Ketel Marte, who made a perfect throw to catcher Carson Kelly for the tag.

Mateo once stole 82 bases in a minor league season. The 25-year-old rookie has 283 career steals in the minors.

The D-backs continued their recent run of good baseball, winning their third straight and for the seventh time in 10 games. Arizona got 14 hits, including three singles by both David Peralta and Kelly.

Nick Ahmed hit a bases-loaded, tworun double to spark a four-run sixth.

Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a two-out, solo homer in the first for San Diego. It was the 21-year-old rising star’s ninth homer of the season and the line drive left the park in a hurry, landing among the dozens of teddy bears seated behind the left field wall.

Arizona tied the game on Kelly’s RBI single in the fourth. The jumped ahead 7-1 by the eighth inning with four runs in the sixth and two more in the seventh.

Eric Hosmer hit a two-run homer in the eighth to pull the Padres within 7-3. Kelly made a tremendous catch on a foul popup, leaning over the railing into the camera well next to the D-backs dugout, to secure the third out.

The Padres pulled within 7-6 in the ninth after Tatis hit a two-run double and Greg Garcia added an RBI single.