The Padres just might have to do it the hard way this season.
Perhaps they are resigned to that fact.
They blew an early three-run lead, did absolutely nothing offensively for six innings, went down by three runs in the 10th and came back to beat the Nationals 7-6 on Jurickson Profar’s walk-off ground-rule double.
A double by Donovan Solano and two-run single by Jackson Merrill preceded Profar’s heroics — a drive to the gap in right field with two strikes and the bases loaded.
It was their fourth walk-off win in their past seven home games.
This, on the day they learned for sure they would lose one of their biggest bats for an extended period and would not be getting back one of their best starting pitchers as soon as expected.
The Padres announced Monday that right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. was going on the injured list with a stress reaction in his right femur, an injury that is expected to keep him out at least another month and perhaps twice that long (or longer).
It was also revealed that newly surfaced elbow inflammation will keep starting pitcher Yu Darvish from making his scheduled return from the injured list. It is not known how long he will be out, but even a short delay stresses a rotation that has been without Darvish and Joe Musgrove (elbow) for much of the season and has been getting spotty results from Dylan Cease and others over the past few weeks.
Fortunately for them, as everything else crumbles around him, Matt Waldron and his fluttering knuckleball continues to provide what stability he can.
On Monday, The right-hander turned in his fifth consecutive quality start, allowing two runs over six innings. In doing so, he became just the fifth Padres pitcher ever to have nine straight starts in which he went at least five innings and allowed no more than two runs.
Waldron had thrown 97 pitches through five innings, largely because he couldn’t quite command his knuckleball and because the Nationals were as selective with the pitch as any team has been this season.
He then got through the sixth inning on 10 pitches.
His ERA dropped three-hundredths of a point to 3.43 on the season. But he has been so good lately — with the third-lowest ERA (1.82) in the majors over his past eight starts — that his outing seemed pedestrian by comparison.
He departed with the Padres up 3-2.
All three of the Padres’ runs came in the second inning, as they went up 3-0 on singles by Jake Cronenworth and Donovan Solano at the start and an RBI single by Ha-Seong Kim and a two-run double by Kyle Higashioka.
They got just one more hit off left-hander Patrick Corbin, who went seven innings for the first time this season and lowered his ERA to 5.46.
The Nationals, who arrived in San Diego with a 38-39 record but with the best mark (11-4) in the majors since June 7, chipped away with a pair of doubles in the third inning and some good fortune in the fifth.
A one-out double by CJ Abrams, one of the former No.1 prospects the Padres traded to Washington in 2022 for Juan Soto, and a two-out double by Joey Maneses got the Nationals on the board.
They got to 3-2 in the fifth when Waldron hit No.9 batter Jacob Young and yielded a single to Abrams. Waldron struck out Lane Thomas as Jesse Winker, but the Nationals executed a double steal on Winker’s strikeout, and Abrams scored when Maneses dribbled a ball down the third base line that Waldron picked up but had no play.
The Nationals tied the game in the seventh against Morejón.
Abrams got his third hit, a one-out single, and stole second during Thomas’ strikeout. It appeared the inning would end on Winker’s grounder to Cronenworth at second base. Cronenworth fielded the ball while moving to his right, turned and had the ball slip from his hand and essentially roll to first base. Winker was safe, and Maneses hit the next pitch on a line to left field to score Abrams.
With a runner second base to start the 10th, De Los Santos got two outs before surrendering an RBI double to Keibert Ruiz and a two-run homer to Thomas.