San Diego’s Fernando Tatis Jr. sprinted home on a wild pitch by Pittsburgh closer David Bednar in the top of the ninth inning to lift the Padres past the Pirates 2-1 at rainy PNC Park on Saturday night.
Tatis, who exited Friday night’s win in the third inning after taking a 93 mph pitch off his left forearm, led off the ninth with a double. The two-time All-Star stole third and took off when a pitch from Bednar (0-3) to Xander Bogaerts skipped in front of catcher Joey Bart. The ball squirted to Bart’s right and Tatis’ slide just beat Bart’s lunging tag to give the Padres their fourth straight victory.
It was a milestone night for Tatis, whose stolen base in the ninth was the 100th of his career. The 26-year-old also has 135 home runs since his major league debut in 2019, making Tatis the 27th active player to join the 100 HR-100 SB club.
Manny Machado hit his third homer of the season for San Diego, which won despite managing just three hits. Jason Adam (3-0) worked a perfect eighth. Robert Suarez walked Oneil Cruz with one out in the ninth, but Bryan Reynolds lined out to Bogaerts at short and Bogaerts doubled off Cruz at first to end it as Robert picked up his 13th save.
Pirates starter Bailey Falter dominated the Padres for seven innings. The left-hander limited San Diego to two hits and at one point retired 11 straight before Machado’s blast over the left field wall with one out in the seventh tied the game.
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Cruz singled home Alexander Canario for Pittsburgh’s only run. Cruz also walked four times. Ke’Bryan Hayes had two of the Pirates’ six singles. Pittsburgh did not record an extra-base hit while losing for the sixth time in seven games.
Through 31 games, Tatis is batting .342 this season, which ranks second in the NL.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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