FRIARS GIVE FANS LATE FIREWORKS
Hosmer homers to tie it in 9th; Caratini adds walk-off shot
The crowd noise that had been building at Petco Park on Thursday afternoon rose to full-on applause as Fernando Tatis Jr. jogged to center field to stretch. It was the first time a sellout home crowd had laid eyes on a Padres team assembled to take a serious run at a World Series in quite a while.
It didn’t mind waiting a six innings for something to really cheer for.
The Padres were just getting started, too, when Tatis spoiled Wade Miley’s no-hit bid with a sixth-inning homer. Manny Machado added a solo homer of his own, Eric Hosmer re-tied the game with a two-run homer a half-inning after Mark Melancon blew a save and Victor Caratini walked off a wild
6-4 win over the Reds with a two-run homer in front of 40,362 crazed fans
“It felt like more than a win to be honest, I think for a lot of reasons,” Padres manager Jayce Tingler said. “Certainly, full capacity, the energy was felt. I don’t know if we do that without the place just kind of rocking tonight.”
There was plenty to celebrate, too, starting with Petco Park opening to full capacity for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic forced baseball to shut its gates to fans when the 2020 season finally started last July.
The first sight of Tatis. The starting lineup. The anthem.
It was all reason to cheer. “The energy was unbelievable,” starting pitcher Joe Musgrove said. “It felt like a playoff game. At the first pitch, it was everyone on their feet screaming. It felt good. It’s exciting because this city has waited a long time to have a team of this caliber.”
Then it was rather quiet until Tatis’ sixth-inning homer off Miley.
Machado’s seventh-inning blast opened up a tworun lead only for it to melt away under Melancon, who allowed a leadoff single to Joey Votto and a one-out double to Tucker Barnhart.
The Reds’ first run crossed on Kyle Farmer’s RBI groundout. Then Tyler Stephenson fought back from 0-2 to tie the game on a single to center. Jonathan India then yanked Melancon’s next pitch over the wall in left, fetching some boos from a crowd that had already serenaded Tatis with MVP chants on several occasions.
They didn’t last long. Hosmer’s one-out blast arrived after Machado led off the ninth with a walk, sending Petco Park into a frenzy that continued through the Reds pulling Ryan Hendrix for Amir Garrett, through Jake Croneworth’s ensuing single and ultimately through Caratini’s walk-off homer on an 0-2 slider.
“I think it’s really exciting,” Caratini said through interpreter David Longley after his first-career walk-off homer. “I was saying it to the guys earlier, it’s just great to be back and having everyone here, having that 100 percent, having all the fans back in the stadium, because that’s what you grow up thinking of when you’re going to the big leagues. You’re in the big leagues and you have stadiums full of fans. It was really great, especially after last year with COVID and everything being so empty and slowly building up to having everyone here today. It was really awesome.
“That’s thanks to the fans for turning out.”
After a 1-5 road trip through New York and Colorado, the Padres had hoped a return to a sold-out Petco Park would help right their ship.
One reason they’d lost 11 of 15 to start this month: They were averaging 3.07 runs per game in June, the worst mark in the majors.
They’d also lost 14 of 22 since the end of a nine-game winning streak played entirely in front of a COVID-19 limited crowd at Petco Park in May.
That, of course, was a significant step up after the “Slam Diego” phenomenon took root in front of empty seats in 2020 as fans were forced to watch the Padres clinch their first playoff berth in 14 years on TV, from the balconies of neighboring high-rises or through the fences outside Gallagher Square.
“Feeling them outside the stadium, hearing them in the city,” Tingler said of the hometown presence before Petco Park returned to full capacity on Thursday. “I stay downtown, and so (I’ve been) hearing them after wins, whether it was last year or this year. Now that we are at full capacity, we have to go out and play our baseball. (If ) we do that, this is a passionate group of fans.
“They love baseball, but what they want to see is winning baseball.”
After a dismal start to the month, perhaps Thursday’s wild walk-off is a step in the right direction.
While the Padres had nothing to show for the first five innings, they were locked in a 0-0 tie because Musgrove had at least matched Miley in the column that matters most.
That’s not a surprise.
The San Diego-native threw the majors’ first nohitter of the year in April, roughly a month before Miley spun his own no-no at Cleveland.
Musgrove worked a bit harder to keep the Reds off the board, scattering four hits and three walks while striking out a season-low two batters. His defense did some of the heavy lifting before Tatis’ and Machado’s blasts, with Hosmer starting a double play to erase India’s single to lead off the game and Machado making a handful of plays while shifted into shallow right field.
Machado was even a few steps short of adding another highlight reel play close to the warning track in right field, where he nearly hauled in a f ly ball off the bat of Jesse Winker with one out in the eighth.
The sellout crowd appreciated the effort, serenading him with “Manny! Manny!” at a decibel that rivaled the MVP chants after Tatis’ sixth-inning homer.
Tatis is now tied for the MLB lead with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. with 22 homers.
Machado’s blast in the seventh inning off Miley was a more traditional nodoubter: An 111 mph line into the second deck in left, a projected 433 feet from the plate.
It was Machado’s 10th of the season and his fourth in his last 12 games after a lukewarm start to the year.
Back-to-back singles from Caratini and pinch-hitter Jurickson Profar finally chased Miley in the eighth.
Miley struck out five, walked two and allowed four hits in seven plus innings.