MIAMI — The kid did it again.
The Kid did it again.
“Wow!” Xander Bogaerts said. “This kid is, uh, man. Wow.”
That was maybe the most appropriate response to the show Jackson Merrill has put on recently, though the jumping and hollering the Padres have done in response has also aptly expressed the awe at his heroics.
On Friday night, for the second time in three days, the 21-year-old Merrill hit a home run in the ninth inning that tied a game the Padres would go on to win in the 10th.
Rescued and revved up by their low-pulse, high-energy rookie, the Padres turned what would have been a disappointing night into another celebration, scoring four times in the 10th and beating the Marlins 6-2 at loanDepot park for their sixth consecutive victory.
It was the third straight game the Padres came back to win a game they trailed entering the ninth inning, the first time that has happened in franchise history.
For the second time in that span, it was Merrill that gave them the opportunity. He also hit a game-tying homer in the ninth inning on July 30 against the Dodgers, making him the first player in MLB history to have three such homers in a span of 11 days.
“At this point,” Manny Machado said, “we’re kind of all, ‘He’s gonna hit it out here.’ ”
It is at least something they can earnestly hope for beforehand and not be surprised about after it happens.
“How he’s rolling right now, yeah, for sure that was crossing my mind,” Machado said of believing Merrill would homer in the ninth. “He’s playing really good baseball right now. … He’s ready for the moment. He takes it all in. And obviously, he’s been putting us on his back.”
Machado also did some heavy lifting on a night in which the hottest team in baseball won for the 13th time in 15 games — just the third time in Padres history that has happened — after trailing the team with the National League’s second-worst record 2-0 going into the eighth inning.
That is when Machado’s two-out double scored Jurickson Profar to make it 2-1. He also drove in two runs in the 10th with a double.
Merrill’s 400-foot blast to right-center field on the first pitch of the ninth from Marlins reliever George Soriano, however, stole the night.
It was his fourth home run this season that tied a game or gave the Padres a lead in the ninth inning, tied for the most by a rookie in the Expansion Era (since 1961).
“Just playing the game,” Merrill said. “There’s nothing else I can say besides playing the game and having fun. This is how you play the game. You play it right, it will reward you.”
For seven innings, the Padres were stymied by Marlins right-hander Edward Cabrera, who had not gone more than six innings since 2022. They were 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position while he was in the game.
But all it takes is a moment to turn a game. And before Merrill’s moment, Martín Pérez was reminded of that Friday night.
The left-hander was good in his second start for the Padres. He was arguably better than in his first start, when he allowed the Rockies a run in six innings six days earlier. He was certainly good enough to give the Padres a chance to win.
But he allowed home runs on successive pitches to Jake Burger and Jonah Bride in the fourth inning.
That had the Padres playing catch-up. And just when it seemed time might run out, Merrill jumped on a slider from Soriano.
“Just trying to be on time with the fastball,” Merrill said.
“He gets a good pitch to hit,” Jake Cronenworth said. “And he takes the pressure off the rest of us in the 10th, and we get to go from there.”
In the 10th, Luis Arraez led off with a single through the left side that moved automatic runner Tyler Wade to third. After Profar grounded out, keeping Wade at third and moving Arraez to second, Cronenworth sent a grounder up the middle that Marlins shortstop Xavier Edwards fielded and tried to throw home. Wade’s head first slide beat the throw, as his face slammed into the dirt.
Machado followed with a double to right-center that scored Arraez and Cronenworth. Bogaerts’ groundout moved Machado to third, and a sinking liner by Merrill scored Machado with the final run.
Tanner Scott worked the bottom of the 10th against the team that traded him to the Padres on July 30 to finish off the Padres’ 29th comeback victory of the season.
“We know we’re not out of it,” Merrill said. “Doesn’t matter who it is — if it’s the Dodgers or these guys, it doesn’t matter. The game is always available for you to come back and win in any way possible.”
Originally Published: