Padres storm back after pair of ejections to beat Yankees
Published in Baseball
NEW YORK — A wet and sort of blah night in the Bronx blew up with a whisper.
The San Diego Padres scored four runs in the eighth inning, all immediately after Fernando Tatis Jr. and manager Mike Shildt were ejected, and held on for a 4-3 victory over the New York Yankees.
The Padres had done almost nothing to that point.
After striking out with runners on first and second for the first out of the eighth, Tatis, who had clearly been displeased by a strike call earlier in the at-bat, got close to the ear of home plate umpire Adrian Johnson and said something. That prompted Johnson to eject him, which brought Shildt from the dugout.
Shildt and others in the Paderes dugout had been yelling at Johnson off and on throughout the night for his strike zone. That yelling had increased during Tatis’ at-bat. And then Shidlt got to really to get into the crew chief. On his way to meet Johnson, Shildt took off his glasses. He then got face to face with the umpire for several minutes, at one point walking around third base umpire Paul Clemons to continue yelling at Johnson.
Luis Arraez then drew a four-pitch walk to load the bases, ending reliever Devin Williams’ night.
Manny Machado came up and lined a double to left field to score Tyler Wade, who had led off the inning with a walk, and Brandon Lockridge, who had singled.
Xander Bogaerts followed with a single to drive in Arraez and Machado, who crossed the plate yelling and pumping his fist.
Jeremiah Estrada pitched a scoreless eighth for the Padres, and Robert Suarez earned his 14th save with a 1-2-3 ninth.
The Padres’ three hits in the eighth inning doubled their total for the night. They had a runner thrown out trying to score on a ball that bounced in the dirt. Starting pitcher Nick Pivetta had one of his two roughest outings of the season while working through what was at one point a deluge. And a guy who used to hit below .200 for the Padres hit his ninth home run of the season fore the Yankees.
Trent Grisham’s majestic two-run homer in the second inning gave the Yankees a 2-0 lead in the third inning. It seemed for a while as if it would be the decisive blow in a game that began 28 minutes late due to rain and was interrupted for 28 minutes in the fourth inning by more rain.
Before the delay, Pivetta clearly could not get a good grip on the ball. He was not only getting a new baseball after every pitch by the end, he was walking two-thirds of the way from the mound to the plate to get those balls. His uniform, like those of every player on the field, was soaked, leaving him no place to dry his hands.
After Austin Wells drew a walk, the final two pitches of which sailed on Pivetta, Johnson motioned for everyone to leave the field.
Pivetta struck out Jorbit Vivas on three pitches when play resumed.
It was in the inning before the rain that Pivetta paid for lack of command against Vivas and Grisham.
Pivetta actually caught a bad break at the start of the third inning, as a full-count fastball clearly at the bottom of the zone was called ball four by Johnson. Then Pivetta caught too much of the plate with a hanging sweeper that Grisham, who the Padres sent to the Yankees along with Juan Soto two offseasons ago, hit to the second deck of seats beyond right field.
Pivetta got through the fifth inning on nine pitches and went out for the fifth before being removed when he yielded a lead-off single to Paul Goldschmidt.
Yuki Matsui allowed the run to score with an assist from an Elias Díaz error.
The run charged to Pivetta would be unearned, as it came with the help of Díaz throwing wide of second base on Goldschmidt’s steal. That allowed Goldschmidt to scamper to third. He then tagged up on Anthony Volpe’s fly-ball to left field.
Pivetta, who entered the game with the National League’s second-lowest ERA (1.74) allowed five hits and walked a season-high four batters while taking 91 pitches to get through 5 1/3 innings.
The Padres managed three hits off Yankees starter Carlos Rodón in his 6 2/3 innings.
The Padres’ lone walk against him was by Xander Bogaerts with one out in the seventh inning.
Bogaerts was forced out at second on a grounder By Luis Campusano, who went to third on a single by Oscar Gonzalez.
That ended Rodón’s night.
Reliever Fernando Cruz had to throw just two pitches, both balls. The second bounced in the first in front of and then behind Wells, the catcher. That brought Campusano charging home, but the ball landed right behind Wells, who grabbed it and tagged out Campusano.
Williams replaced Cruz to start the eighth.
____
©2025 The San Diego Union-Tribune. Visit sandiegouniontribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Comments