» PADRES STUN CARDS TO ADVANCE
SAN DIEGO — The most unique season in Major League Baseball history will continue with the Padres as part of it after their most improbable victory Friday night.
Nine pitchers, starting with 36year-old Craig Stammen and including 20-year-old Luis Patino before ending with borrowed closer Trevor Rosenthal, produced a gem of a game and the Padres beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-0, to win their best-of-three Wild Card Series at Petco Park.
It was the second time in MLB history — and the first time in the postseason — a team used nine pitchers in a shutout victory.
The Padres’ first postseason in 14 years will carry on to Arlington, Texas, for their first ever playoff meeting with the Dodgers. The bestof-five National League Division Series begins Tuesday at Globe Life Field, where the winner would continue to play as long as it survives.
In this season unlike any other — delayed by four months and shortened by two-thirds due to COVID-19 — the Padres coalesced into a team rarely seen in San Diego. If ever.
They scored the third-most runs and allowed the eighth fewest. They hit the fourth-most home runs and stole the most bases. By some measures, they had the major leagues’ best overall defense.
They made joy their sixth tool, laughing and dancing their way to the second-most victories in the National League.
And just when it seemed they would not get to show the world their swaggy exuberance and brimming talent, they scored nine runs in their final three innings to come back and beat the Cardinals 11-9 on Thursday night, forcing Friday’s deciding game.
The elimination game became more tense with every passing scoreless half-inning, as the Padres had to take the next step toward history — in their words eat “the big cake” for the first time in the franchise’s existence — by using almost every member of their already exhausted bullpen.
After being down 4-0 at the end of the second inning in both of the first two games, they took a 1-0 lead in the fifth inning on doubles by Fernando Tatis Jr. and Eric Hosmer.
They added two runs in the seventh on a single, two Cardinals errors and two walks, including one drawn by Hosmer with the bases loaded that made it 3-0.
Rookie Jake Cronenworth made it 4-0 with a solo home run in the eighth inning.
For all the Padres’ success heading into this series, what happened right before it and at its start made this result somewhat improbable.
With Mike Clevinger and Dinelson Lamet, the expected starters in Games 1 and 2, ruled out due to arm ailments and starters Chris Paddack and Zach Davies having bad games at the worst time, it was essentially three bullpen games for the Padres.
The relievers combined for a 1.58 ERA in 22 2/3 innings.
The Padres, not anticipating their top two pitchers would get hurt, sent Garrett Richards to the bullpen in September. So they came into this series with just two starting pitchers.
But what they were missing on their pitching staff did not crush them, because what they had would not allow it.
They used a franchise-record eight pitchers in Wednesday’s Game 1 then broke that record by using nine in Game 2 and then matched that in Game 3, becoming the first team to ever use at least eight pitchers in three consecutive postseason games.
Friday’s game was scheduled to be a bullpen bash from the start.
What wasn’t determined until early Friday morning was that Stammen, the oldest Padres player, would get the ball at the start.
Stammen took 10 pitches to retire the Cardinals in order in the first inning and got two outs in the second after allowing a soft single to Dylan Carlson leading off. As Tim Hill jogged in from the bullpen, Stammen walked to the dugout serenaded by a relatively loud standing ovation from the few hundred people (mostly team employees and players’ families) inside Petco Park.
His 1 2/3 innings were only one out shorter than Davies lasted on Thursday and two outs shorter than Paddack lasted Wednesday.
Garrett Cooper’s late home run helps Marlins advance past Cubs
CHICAGO — Garrett Cooper, with a 2-2 count and two outs against National League Cy Young Award contender Yu Darvish in the seventh inning, gave the Miami Marlins the clutch hit they needed Friday as they tried to close out a first-round playoff sweep.
He turned on an 82.9-mph slider that caused the visitor’s dugout to erupt amid the silence of an empty
Wrigley Field. The celebration continued as the ball dropped 370 feet from home plate and into the leftfield seats.
It started the latest two-out rally for the Marlins this season. This time, though, it led Miami to a wildcard series-clinching 2-0 win over the Cubs and punched their ticket to the National League Division Series. The Marlins opened the best-of3 series with a 5-1 win on Wednesday and will face the Atlanta Braves in the National League Division Series starting Tuesday at Houston’s Minute Maid Park.
“You work your whole life to get to a situation like this,” Cooper said, “to be in a situation where you can advance and control your own destiny by every play, every ball, everything that happens each play.”
The Marlins batted .251 this season with two outs, which was the seventh-highest mark in the Majors and fifth in the National League. Moreover, the Marlins scored 122 of their 263 runs — an MLB-leading 46.4% — during the regular season with two outs.
The late-inning hitting continued Friday. Magneuris Sierra followed Cooper’s home run with an RBI single through the right side. He got to the plate after Matt Joyce doubled and the Cubs intentionally walked Miguel Rojas.
It all backed up a stout pitching performance led by rookie pitcher Sixto Sanchez.
Sanchez, the Marlins’ top prospect, twirled five scoreless innings, holding the Cubs to four hits and two walks while striking out six. Sanchez also hit two batters.
Sanchez got out of the fourth inning after walking the first two batters he faced with help from his defense. Jon Berti grabbed a line drive from Kris Bryant for the first out before right fielder Joyce threw out Willson Contreras trying to score from second on a Jason Heyward single. A Javier Baez flyout ended the inning.
In the fifth, Sanchez loaded the bases on a pair of one-out singles from Victor Caratini and Ian Happ and a two-out hit-by-pitch before getting Kyle Schwarber to fly out to left and end the threat. Sanchez clapped his hands as Schwarber slammed his bat on the ground, knowing the out was going to be recorded.
Brad Boxberger (1 1/3 innings), Richard Bleier (2/3 innings), Yimi Garcia (1 inning) and Brandon Kintzler (1 inning) threw four shutout innings to secure the win.