SAN DIEGO – Nico Hoerner pushed up from his head-first slide into third base and pounded his chest, shouting again on the raucous Cubs dugout that was celebrating his go-ahead RBI.
“It’s enjoyable once they’re within the third base dugout and it’s proper in entrance of you and seeing everybody’s faces,” Hoerner stated after the Cubs’ 2-1 extra-innings win Tuesday. “And you place a variety of time into this recreation, so that you’ve obtained to take pleasure in these particular issues.”
Hoerner’s Tenth-inning leadoff triple proved to be the distinction within the recreation. The Cubs evened the sequence at Petco Park and handed the Padres their first residence lack of the season on the again of a robust pitching efficiency for 10 innings.
“That was the actual story of the sport,” Hoerner stated. “Shota [Imanaga] after which everybody else that adopted was so, so good. And even in a recreation the place we left some outs on the sphere, to nonetheless solely hand over one run to a very sturdy offense like that, and have so many guys contribute – that was simply an enormous, big efficiency by so many individuals that made that recreation potential. That was unbelievable.”
The Padres’ solely run was avoidable.
Imanaga, after holding the Padres offense at bay for 4 innings, obtained Manny Machado to hit a fly ball into foul territory on the primary pitch of his fifth-inning at-bat. Nevertheless it glanced off Kyle Tucker’s glove – an error for Tucker and a second probability for Machado.
On the fourth pitch of the at-bat, Machado popped up in foul territory. However third baseman Gage Workman’s tried basket catch additionally failed. One other error. And Machado stepped again into the batter’s field.
The battle ended on the ninth pitch, when Machado turned on a fastball down and in, and put it into the left-field seats.
“I imply, give Machado credit score,” supervisor Craig Counsell stated. “I don’t know, as a fan, you’re pissed off that we didn’t make some performs. However give Machado some credit score there.”
The Cubs evened the rating the subsequent inning with some small ball.
Dansby Swanson and Nico Hoerner hit back-to-back singles to steer off the sixth. Then the Padres changed beginning pitcher Randy Vásquez with left-hander Adrian Morejon because the Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong got here as much as bat.
Crow-Armstrong dropped a bunt up the primary bottom line, and with Swanson sprinting residence, Padres first baseman Luis Arraez fumbled the switch. Swanson dove throughout the plate and Crow-Armstrong reached first and not using a throw.
Cubs relievers Daniel Palencia, Julian Merryweather, Porter Hodge and Ryan Pressly shut down the Padres offense by the rest of regulation, dealing with the minimal from the sixth inning by the ninth.
After Hoerner drove within the computerized extra-innings runner within the Tenth, left-hander Caleb Thielbar took the mound within the backside of the inning with a runner on second and barely any wiggle room.
“It’s nothing new, however it by no means will get simpler,” Thielbar stated. “Particularly with a staff like this, they only don’t strike out a complete lot, make a variety of contact, and also you’ve actually simply obtained to hope the ball bounces your means. And tonight it did.”
Thielbar solely allowed yet one more baserunner, pitching round Padres star Fernando Tatís Jr. and deliberately strolling him in a 2-0 depend, earlier than securing the ultimate out on a fly ball from Arraez.
