There are few things in baseball — and perhaps in life — that would seem more certain than a ball hit directly at Manny Machado resulting in an out.
Alas, there are few true absolutes in baseball. Or in life.
And so it was that a line drive that seemed would end the fourth inning Saturday night instead went in and out of Machado’s glove, helping lead to a grand slam by Francisco Lindor that gave the Mets a big lead they never came close to surrendering in what became a 7-1 victory.
“I don’t know, honestly,” Machado said of the play. “Got lost in the stands and hit the tip of my glove. Could have got out of the inning, and gave up four. Shouldn’t happen.”
The Padres, who managed just five hits in 7⅓ innings against Mets starter David Peterson (8-1, 2.85) and got just one more against reliever Dedniel Nuñez, loaded the bases with one out in the fifth inning with the top of their order up but came away with just one run to get to 5-1.
Lindor hit a solo homer in the seventh off Adrián Morejón to get the margin back to five, and Harrison Bader made it 7-1 in the eighth inning with a homer against Logan Gillaspie.
The Padres’ third loss in four days dropped them to two games behind the Diamondbacks, who hold the National League’s top wild-card spot, and two games ahead of the Braves, who hold the third-and-final playoff spot.
The Mets are the closest team on the outside looking in, 2½ games behind the Braves and 4½ behind the Padres.
The Mets finished with five hits, one fewer than the team they routed. But the fourth inning and its four unearned runs were just the worst part of a strangely unfortunate night for Padres starting pitcher Michael King (11-7, 3.14).
He would depart after five innings having allowed just three hits but also having walked three and hit one and been the victim of bad calls, bad luck and a bad play.
He was having none of that, focusing on the pitches he could have made.
It was a frustrating first inning, though it certainly could have ended up being much worse.
For the first time since his first start for the Padres back on March 31, King walked three batters in an inning. The second of those three left him gesturing to home plate umpire Mike Muchlinski, as the second pitch called a ball and fourth pitch called a ball were clearly in the strike zone.
One pitch after that walk, by Brandon Nimmo, King sent a sinker well inside against Pete Alonso. The Mets’ cleanup hitter made contact, sending a splintered portion of his bat down the first base line and the ball rolling slowly down the third base line, where it bounced off the bag and into foul territory. As third baseman Manny Machado gave chase, Mark Vientos ran from second to home, Nimmo advanced to third and Alonso sprinted to second where he stood smiling with a double.
“The second at-bat of the game, the first walk, was a terrible walk by me, so I shouldn’t have even gotten to that point,” King said. “And then, yeah, I mean, it’s just baseball. Execute that sinker into Pete, and it hits the bag. Can’t do anything about it.”
King ended the first by striking out J.D. Martinez, walking Jesse Winker and striking out Starling Marte.
The one run felt like an escape. The residual damage was that King had thrown 31 pitches.
He got through the next two innings on a total of 21 pitches and had retired nine straight batters when Marte lined a two-out single to right field in the fourth inning and another inning threatened to unravel.
This time, it did.
It appeared the inning would be over when Alvarez lined a ball not all that hard directly at Machado. But the anticipated did not occur, as the ball caromed off Machado’s glove and into left field. Then King had a 1-2 fastball get away from him, riding up and in and into Jeff McNeil’s elbow to load the bases.
After a visit by pitching coach Ruben Niebla and the entire infield, King threw two balls to Francisco Lindor and then left a sweeper in the middle of the strike zone that was hit high and far and into the seats beyond right field.
King smiled and shook his head at the mention of Machado’s error.
“He’s so good,” King said.
He then quoted his college pitching coach.
“It’s out after error,” King said of a pitcher’s responsibility. “And after that, I hit McNeil and let up a grand slam. It’s on me to pick up the team that way, and I didn’t do it.”
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