Three straight walks, and Petco Park smelled it coming
Jared Simpson walked Xander Bogaerts. Then Freddy Fermin. Then Fernando Tatis Jr. Bases loaded, nobody out, and a 4-1 Washington lead that had looked perfectly safe five minutes earlier was suddenly paper thin. San Diego won it 5-4.
Austin Hays came off the bench and lifted a sacrifice fly to bring Bogaerts in. Manny Machado tied it at 4-4 with a chopper back up the middle off Erik Tolman. Then Luis Campusano, two outs, dropped a soft single into right-center to score Machado. Second walk-off hit of the homestand for him.
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Half a game, three weeks, one wild-card spot
At 77-68, the Padres are a half-game back of Arizona for the last National League wild card. The Diamondbacks had just beaten Kansas City 5-3 in 11 innings, so nothing was gifted here.
David Morgan picked up the win and moved to 3-1 despite recording exactly one out in the eighth. Adrian Morejon needed three pitches for a clean ninth and his third save, working a third consecutive day with closer Mason Miller unavailable. A bullpen stretched that thin in early September is its own kind of story.
Sixth in a row for Washington, and this one stings
The Nationals drop to 67-80. They had done the hard part properly. Yohandy Morales opened the scoring in the second with a 407-foot shot off a Casey Mize fastball, his second homer of the year. Brady House doubled the lead in the sixth with a two-run double after a CJ Abrams walk.
Mize gave up three runs on four hits and a walk across 5 2/3 innings, striking out seven. The Washington bullpen, hardly known for its reliability, had allowed one hit over six innings, Riley Cornelio throwing three perfect frames in the middle of it. Andres Chaparro even pushed it to 4-1 with his 10th homer. Twenty minutes later it was all gone.
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