SAN DIEGO — The Padres’ path to a 1-0 victory over the Diamondbacks on Tuesday night: They hit one out and brought two back.
Luis Arraez’s seventh-inning home run proved decisive in a tense showdown between two division rivals fighting for position in the National League playoff picture. But it was two home-runs-that-weren’t that had Petco Park buzzing.
Three innings later, Merrill might have been upstaged by his Platinum Glove Award-winning teammate in right field. With the Padres clinging to a one-run lead, Josh Naylor launched a missile that seemed ticketed for the right-field deck. Fernando Tatis Jr. leapt and brought it back.
“They’re tremendous plays made by great athletes, and it just goes to show you good defense can help you win games and win moments,” said Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo. “If you add it all up, it was a difference in the game. … I’ve never seen two in one game. Both were incredible plays.”
Indeed, baseball can be a strange game. Arraez’s homer into the Petco Porch area in right field carried 358 feet. Both Carroll and Naylor hit the ball farther — and both were headed over the wall. Until a Padres defender brought them back.
First it was Merrill, a converted shortstop, who has starred defensively in center since making the move last season. Then, it was Tatis — also a converted shortstop, who has become one of the premier defensive outfielders in baseball since his full-time transition to the outfield in 2023.
“Both those guys have, what, four years combined out there of experience, going out there and making those plays,” said Padres manager Mike Shildt. “They win on both sides of the ball. Jackson just saved a game tonight. He won us a game. Tati won us a game.
“Guys with that kind of athleticism and talent, they show up, and they beat the other team in a lot of different ways.”
The two home-run robberies made all the difference in a game that was a pitchers’ duel from the outset. Righties Nick Pivetta and Merrill Kelly matched zeros, until Arraez took Kelly deep in the seventh inning. On the night, the Diamondbacks had the bulk of the opportunities. The Padres didn’t put a runner in scoring position.
“There’s definitely a lot of things that I feel like could have gone a different route tonight, but they didn’t,” said Carroll. “It’ll swing back around at some point.”
Pivetta escaped a couple jams — including, of course, the one in the fifth, courtesy of Merrill. It’s been a rough few weeks for the Padres center fielder. Since returning from the injured list on June 22, he’s batting .155 with a .444 OPS.
“It’s tough,” said Merrill, who was dropped from second to fifth in the lineup on Tuesday. “But, like I’ve said, there’s two sides of the ball.”
He was quick to say he felt his robbery on Tuesday night was better than the one last week in Philly, because of the wall height. The trajectory — a 104.6 mph rocket off Carroll’s bat — also made it tougher, because Merrill couldn’t amble to the wall as he had a week ago.
In any case, Tatis had an excellent view of both catches from his spot in right field. So three innings later, when Naylor launched one his way …
“I said, ‘I better keep up,’” Tatis laughed.
He did exactly that. After going airborne and taking a home run away from Naylor, Tatis kissed the patch on his glove, which he received for winning the Platinum Glove Award in 2023 as the National League’s top overall defender.
“The craziest thing is I was watching it, and I was like, ‘I think he’s going to catch this,” said reliever Jason Adam, who was on the mound at the time. “You almost come to expect it out of him. It’s insane. You never want to take having him in the outfield for granted.”
Among all parties involved, no one could recall a game with multiple home-run robberies by the same team — especially in a game that ended 1-0. The margins are thin — and if anyone should know that, it’s these two teams.
Two years ago, the D-backs went to the World Series and the Padres missed the playoffs — when one additional San Diego win over Arizona would have flipped their playoff fates. Last year, the D-backs missed the playoffs by one game — largely because, on the final weekend, they couldn’t win a series against a Padres team that had already clinched.
In the moment, the two catches were sensational.
But — after they settled a one-run game between two division rivals — who knows what they might mean come September and October?
