The Padres’ bullpen can take a long deep breath on Thursday.
Rather, it should take a long deep breath then.
Because a three-game stay at hitter-friendly Coors Field sits on the other side of Thursday’s off day and that will start a string of 18 straight games that will carry the season into September.
Michael King did what he could to provide an early blow with six strong innings on Tuesday. Then David Peralta provided some late thunder via his fifth homer and the bullpen again walked a tight rope in securing a 3-0 win in front of a sellout crowd of 42,949 at Petco Park.
The victory clinched the Padres’ eighth straight series win heading into Wednesday’s finale against a reeling Pirates team that has lost nine in a row and all five so far this season to the Padres.
It’s a push that has the Padres perched atop the NL wild-card standings, but it has not been easy of late. Five of the previous six games had been decided by a single run.
Tuesday’s win was only extended to a three-run cushion on Manny Machado’s single through the middle of the infield, cashing in Luis Arraez’ double to start the eighth.
Before that, the Padres had pinned their hopes on King’s gem, an early gift from the Pirates and Jason Adam and Tanner Scott stranding runners at third base in the seventh and eighth innings.
Robert Suarez pitched a scoreless ninth.
“It’s been 50-50,” Machado said. “You’re just talking about one week worth of baseball. It’s been tight. I mean, baseball’s up and down. Honestly in that week we’ve been winning games. That’s all that really matters at the end of the day. Two weeks ago, we were scoring runs and pitching wasn’t giving up any runs. Now it’s flipped. Now it’s been we’ve been hitting and we’ve been giving up some runs and it’s been tight games. …
“It’s the beauty of baseball. Every week it’s something different. You just gotta try to come out on the opposite side of winning ballgames and that’s what we’ve been doing.”
Indeed.
The Padres entered Tuesday with a 17-13 record in one-run games and a 28-19 record in two-run games.
Peralta’s 410-foot blast to right in the fifth inning then allowed King to breathe a bit easier. He struck out 10 batters in turning in the first quality start by a Padres pitcher other than Martín Pérez since King pitched into the seventh inning in a win on July 27 in Baltimore.
King allowed seven hits — albeit on quite a bit of soft contact — but two double-plays helped his cause.
The first was started by Cronenworth at first base in the fifth inning, ending the frame after Andrew McCutchen’s one-out single.
King helped his own case after Oneil Cruz led off the sixth with a single, fielding a comebacker from Joey Bart and whirling to second to start a double play. He then struck out Rowdy Tellez for his 10th punchout and walked off the mound with just 93 pitches.
King did not walk a batter in a start for the first time in 15 starts. None of the hits he allowed went for extra bases and three didn’t crack 75 mph off the bat.
Adam was the first reliever out of the gate, and he stranded a runner at third with two strikeouts after hitting a batter to start the seventh.
The next inning, Tanner Scott left a runner on third after allowing a one-out double to Bryan Reynolds.
The arrival of Adam before the trade deadline was the start a bullpen overhaul that saw Scott and swingman Bryan Hoeing arrive from Miami shortly after.
Since Adam’s arrival on July 29, the bullpen’s ERA entering Tuesday was 2.75, fourth lowest among relief corps over that stretch.
The Padres did not collect a hit on Tuesday until Cronenworth’s leadoff single in the fourth inning — and he was promptly picked off first base.
King was still protecting a lead, however, because of the Pirates’ first-inning gifts.
Arraez’s leadoff walk, a Luis Ortiz breaking ball that struck Jurickson Profar in the foot and the missed catch at second base on Cronenworth’s would-be double-play tapper back to the mound.
That loaded the bases, and Machado cashed in one run on a sacrifice fly to center field. But the rally was halted immediately after that when Xander Bogaerts bounced to third base to start an inning-ending double play.
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