The San Diego Padres snapped a tie by scoring two unearned runs in the top of the seventh without the benefit of a hit, then broke the game open on Manny Machado’s three-run, ninth-inning homer to defeat the Minnesota Twins 6-1 on Tuesday night in the opener of a three-game series in Minneapolis.
The Twins made three errors in the seventh — two on bad throws by catcher Christian Vazquez — and reliever Griffin Jax issued two walks to allow San Diego to break a 1-1 deadlock.
Ha-Seong Kim grounded to first to open the inning, but reached when first baseman Alex Kirilloff’s toss to Jax forced the pitcher to miss the bag. Trent Grisham then drew a walk. Kim stole third when Austin Nola showed bunt, drawing Minnesota third baseman Jose Miranda in on the grass. Kim then scored when Nola successfully got down a squeeze bunt.
When Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a sharp grounder, Grisham was caught off the bag at second and put out at third. But Tatis followed by stealing second and moved to third on Vazquez’s throw into center, then scored when the catcher’s attempted pick-off throw to third hit Tatis in the back and rolled away.
Machado’s two-out, 405-foot drive off Twins reliever Jorge Alcala followed a single by Nola and a walk drawn by Jake Cronenworth.
Padres starter Michael Wacha (3-1) got credit for the win. Jax (1-4) took the loss on the two unearned runs.
The score was tied 1-1 entering the seventh after Wacha and Louie Varland each departed after six innings.
The Padres took a 1-0 lead in the top of the fourth after Juan Soto doubled and Matt Carpenter drove him in with a two-out single. Soto went on to finish with four hits.
Byron Buxton and Kirilloff drew back-to-back walks from Wacha opening the bottom of the fourth before Miranda tied the game with a one-out double into the left field corner. But Wacha struck out Joey Gallo and retired Vazquez on a grounder to short to get out of the jam.
Wacha allowed his run on three hits with four strikeouts. Varland allowed his run on five hits and two walks with six strikeouts.
–Field Level Media
