Padres add on late, run away with win over Mets

Jeff Sanders, The San Diego Union-Tribune on Jul 30, 2025

Published in Baseball

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Elías Díaz hasn’t hit much this year.

He has, however, hit a bit more of late.

The Padres’ light-hitting catcher provided some insurance in another tight game on Tuesday night, doubling in two runs in the seventh inning as the floodgates finally opened in a game the Padres won 7-1 in front of a sellout crowd of 45,088.

Díaz’s two-run double added on in a game in which the Padres bunted their way to a run in the first inning and had a lucky-hop triple give them a 2-1 lead in the sixth. Before the seventh inning was over, Manny Machado had hit a three-run homer to give the bullpen some breathing room.

Jose Iglesias and Jake Cronenworth strung together back-to-back singles to open the seventh. Díaz then pulled a one-out grounder inside the third base line to plate both runners.

A day earlier, Díaz drove in two runs on two hits, including the walk-off single in the 10th inning. He also plated a run on Sunday with a sacrifice bunt, giving him an RBI in three straight games for his longest streak since driving in a run in four straight games in May 2024.

The 34-year-old catcher entered the game hitting .200/.268/.302.

Jackson Merrill hit a 96 mph ball into the dirt just up the first base line in the sixth inning. The smash hopped over a leaping Pete Alonso and rattled into the right field corner, allowing Luis Arraez to score from first with two outs for a 2-1 lead.

Rookie right-hander Bergert lowered his ERA to 2.78 with another solid effort. His effort came with another tight leash; Bergert has pitched into the sixth inning just twice in seven starts and on Tuesday was pulled from the game with the bases loaded in the fifth inning.

The traffic mounted a bit surprisingly given how easily the 25-year-old rookie navigated the first four frames.

Bergert struck out the first two batters he faced, including boyhood hero Francisco Lindor. He allowed just two hits — one in the second and one in the third — and then one in the fifth after Brett Baty walked to open the frame.

Bergert then issued his fourth walk of the game, to Brandon Nimmo, to load the bases and fetch Padres manager Mike Shildt from the dugout.

Jeremiah Estrada struck out Lindor for the first out in relief of Bergert, but pinch-hitter Starling Marte’s ensuing fly ball to right-center field was deep enough to tie the game ahead of a throw from Fernando Tatis Jr., who stepped in front of Merrill to attempt to make the play at the plate.

Estrada then got Alonso to pop out to end the inning.

Perhaps there would have been a bit of slack in the leash had the Padres pounced on Mets left-hander Sean Manaea early.

Instead, they opted to attempt to bunt their way to runs.

The first bunt of the night opened the scoring. Tatis led off the game with a single, moved to second on Arraez’s sacrifice, scampered to third on Machado’s fly ball to center and scored on Merrill’s single to center.

The next inning, an even bigger rally loomed when Iglesias led off with a double. Cronenworth tried to bunt him to third base but settled for moving him over with a groundout to first.

Bryce Johnson then tried a squeeze bunt to plate the game’s second run. However, his attempt against a drawn-in infield was fielded by Manaea in front of the mound. The pitcher had plenty of time to make a glove-flip to get Iglesias at home.