Manny Machado hit a tie-breaking grand slam in the fifth inning Wednesday night for the visiting San Diego Padres, who held on to beat the New York Mets 7-4 in the middle game of a three-game series between the teams holding down the final two National League wild card spots.
Gavin Sheets (sacrifice fly) and Jake Cronenworth (single) had RBIs in the first and second inning, respectively, for the Padres (83-69), who hold the second wild card slot, 5 games ahead of the Mets (78-74). San Diego entered Wednesday two games behind the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers.
Ramon Laureano hit an insurance solo homer in the ninth as San Diego won for the fourth time in six games.
Pete Alonso, Starling Marte, Francisco Alvarez and Juan Soto all homered for the Mets, who fell to 2-9 since Sept. 6 but remained 1 1/2 games ahead of the Arizona Diamondbacks in the race for the final wild card spot by virtue of the Diamondbacks’ 5-1, 11-inning loss to the San Francisco Giants earlier Wednesday.
Marte’s fourth-inning homer off Nick Pivetta tied the score at 2, but the Padres used small ball to set up Machado’s blast against David Peterson (9-6).
Cronenworth was hit by a pitch to open the inning and moved to second on Elias Diaz’s bunt. Fernando Tatis Jr. walked and Luis Arraez laid down a bunt single before Machado hit a 3-2 pitch 401 feet over the left field fence for his second grand slam of the season and the 14th of his career, which leads all active players.
The Mets chased Pivetta in the bottom half of the fifth when Soto homered with two outs and Alonso singled. Adrian Morejon (12-5) retired all four batters he faced, but Alvarez homered leading off the seventh against Jeremiah Estrada before Mason Miller set down five in a row. Miller struck out Soto to end the seventh after Soto pulled a potential game-tying homer just foul down the left-field line.
Robert Suarez allowed a hit and issued a walk in the ninth but closed out his 39th save by retiring Soto, again the potential tying run, on a sharp comebacker.
Pivetta allowed three runs on seven hits and no walks while striking out five in 4 2/3 innings, his shortest start since June 20. Peterson gave up six runs (three earned) on six hits and three walks with one strikeout over five innings.
