The Padres are still not hitting a whole lot.
In the end Monday, they didn’t have to hit to secure a 4-3 victory over the Marlins.
“Winners find solutions, right?” Padres manager Mike Shildt said afterward, repeating one of his favorite mantras.
They at least take advantage of solutions that are given to them.
Monday night at Petco Park, in the opener of a three-game series and six-game homestamd, the solution came in the form of a wild pitch by Marlins reliever Cade Gibson that allowed Tyler Wade to score from third base in the 11th inning.
Manny Machado began the bottom of the 11th as the runner at second base after making the final out in the 10th. Gavin Sheets led off with a grounder to the right side that moved Machado to third.
At that point, Shildt replaced Machado with the speedy Wade.
After Xander Bogaerts was intentionally walked, Gibson bounced a 2-2 curveball to Jake Cronenworth that caromed to catcher Nick Fortes’ left. Fortes reached out and blocked the ball with his glove, but the ball bounced back toward the first base side of the batters’ circle.
Fortes gave chase as Wade sprinted home.
“It was closer than I thought,” Wade said. “When I started running, I was like, ‘Oh, I gotta get going here.’”
Wade began his dive just as Fortes got to the ball and tossed it to Gibson. Wade’s hand slid in ahead of the tag, though he would have been safe, regardless, because the ball rolled out of Gibson’s glove.
The @Padres walk it off in wild fashion in the 11th inning! pic.twitter.com/I2wTbCWFly
— MLB (@MLB) May 27, 2025
Adrián Morejón stranded the Marlins’ automatic runner in the top of the 11th and got the win in the Padres’ first extra-inning victory in four tries this season.
A solo home run by Machado tied the game 3-3 in the eighth.
That was one of their five hits Monday, and they are now batting .198 over the past 10 games.
They are batting just slightly worse (.194) over the past four games. But they have won three of those, which is three more than they won in the previous six games.
Facing the Marlins, whose 21-30 record entering Monday’s game was third-worst in the National League and had them in last place in the NL East, the Padres found themselves down 3-0 two innings in and got back close because they had the opportunity to score gifted to them.
The Marlins’ starting pitcher Monday night was left-hander Ryan Weathers, who the Padres selected seventh overall in the 2018 draft and traded to the Marlins at the deadline in 2023 after he pitched in 42 games (29 starts) for them.
Weathers was in line to win after allowing two unearned runs on three hits, walking three and striking out six in 5⅔ innings.
The second reliever to follow him, Calvin Faucher, served up the 2-0 belt-high cutter on the outer third of the plate that Machado sent 408 feet to left field. Or that is how far it was projected to have gone had it not bounced off the ribbon board below the second deck of seats.
Padres starter Randy Vásquez departed with one out in the seventh inning and his team down 3-2.
Wandy Peralta got the next three outs before David Morgan, making his major league debut, got the final two outs of the eighth inning.
After the game was tied, Padres closer Robert Suarez worked a scoreless ninth, and Jason Adam stranded the automatic runner in the top of the 10th.
Vásquez began the game throwing lots of strikes, and the Marlins hit four of them while building a 2-0 lead in the game’s first half-inning.
The Marlins lead was 3-0 Jesús Sanchez’s two-out home run in the second, and Vásquez had thrown 37 pitches to that point.
He would take just 52 more while retiring 14 of the final 15 batters he faced.
Weathers was at just 44 pitches after three innings.
But after running his out streak to 10 batters by striking out Machado and getting Sheets on a groundout to start the fourth, Weathers ran into trouble not of his own making.
It began with Bogaerts grounding a single up the middle and stealing second while Cronenworth was up.
But the inning should have ended there when Cronenworth sent a routine grounder to the left side that Connor Norby fielded before sailing the throw.
Luis Campusano followed with a walk that loaded the bases before Jose Iglesias drove in two with a double just inside the bag at third.
The Padres had a runner in scoring position with less than two outs in the seventh and 10th. Both times, the top of the order could not get that runner in.
But they won.
“Great victory for us,” Machado said. “We battled back. Hell of a job by Vasquez starting off the game how he did, then settling in and dominating after that and giving us the chance to go out there and turn some momentum to us. Bullpen came in, was lights out. We grinded, had some good at-bats.”
Just enough.
“It just kind of it goes to what our team motto is,” Wade said. “We’re never out of it until the last out.”
