The Padres picked up a big win Friday night and got a little help elsewhere, too.
San Diego beat the Miami Marlins, 8-2, to move to 85-69, and with both the Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies also losing, those three clubs are now tied in the National League wild-card race at 85-69. The Padres still sit as the No. 6 seed because they lost the season series to both teams, but they’ve put themselves squarely in range of moving up. That includes a shot at one of the top wild-card spots, and even the No. 4 seed, which would bring a home wild-card series.
The setup in the bracket is straightforward: the Nos. 4 and 5 seeds will meet in a best-of-three series from Sept. 29 to Oct. 1, while the No. 6 seed would face the No. 3 seed, currently the Atlanta Braves.
San Diego also widened the gap on the Arizona Diamondbacks, who fell to the New York Yankees on Friday night and dropped five games behind the Padres for the third and final wild-card spot. The Padres’ number to clinch a playoff berth is now four.
On the field, it took a while for the game to crack open. Nick Pivetta and Tyler Phillips matched each other early, and the Marlins got the first punch in the third inning when Agustín Ramirez hit a solo home run. Pivetta settled down from there and worked five innings, allowing one run.
Phillips was sharp, too, throwing 3.2 scoreless innings before Cade Gibson came on to finish off four shutout frames. But Gibson returned for the bottom of the fifth and ran into trouble, giving up consecutive hits before Tyler Zuber took over.
San Diego then flipped the game in a hurry. Samad Taylor opened the inning with a bunt single to load the bases with nobody out.
After Ethan Salas flied out, Fernando Tatis Jr. delivered a game-tying RBI single. Dustin Harris followed with a two-run single, and then Ty France blew it open with a three-run homer.
It was France’s 21st home run of the season, a new career high.
TY FRANCE BRINGING THE ENERGY pic.twitter.com/1DkVGzGb3F
Wandy Peralta handled the next stretch for San Diego after Pivetta, throwing 1.1 scoreless innings. David Morgan gave up a run over 1.1 innings, and Adrian Morejon finished the eighth.
The Padres added more in the bottom of the inning. Jackson Merrill led off with a home run, and three straight singles brought in another run to stretch the lead to 8-2.
Griffin Canning finished it off, with Mason Miller getting the night off. Miller hasn’t pitched since Sept. 14.
“It’s a good vacation, for sure,” Miller said to reporters before Friday's game. “I think we’ve done a really good job of managing the workload this year, but it did get a little heavy there in San Francisco for all the guys, not just us. So being able to kind of spread it out over the bullpen and still win three out of four games in Colorado was big.”
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