WASHINGTON — Welcome back, Slam Diego.
It took 97 games, but finally the Padres have their first grand slam of the season: a ninth-inning blast from Manny Machado to extend the San Diego lead en route to a 7-2 win over Washington at Nationals Park.
The Padres had already pulled ahead on Elias Díaz’s second sac bunt of the night, after the Nats had clawed their way back into the game with a two-run bottom of the eighth. The tie didn’t last long, though, as San Diego sent all nine batters to the plate in their five-run ninth inning — which was, of course, capped by Machado’s slam, the 13th of his career.
“We could be ‘Slam Diego’ again,” manager Mike Shildt quipped postgame. “I’m fine with it.”
Realistically, though, Machado’s slam is just one aspect of an overall well-played game from the Padres, the kind of game that sets the tone for a level of play that leads to another strong second half and a postseason push.
“A lot of good things to unpack in that game,” Shildt said. “[I liked] pretty much every aspect of that game, except one swing, really. I mean, that was a well-played baseball game on our side.”
The game started as a typical pitchers’ duel. Dylan Cease, opposite the Nats’ Michael Soroka, tossed 5 1/3 scoreless innings and allowed just four hits while collecting 10 strikeouts — tied for his second-most K’s this season. (He struck out 11 on June 10 vs. the Dodgers.) It marked the fifth time in Cease’s career that he’s struck out at least 10 batters without surrendering a walk, something he hadn’t done since Sept. 23, 2023.
“Dylan set a nice tone for us,” Shildt said. “Thought he was really crisp, throwing it where he wanted to, started introducing the sweeper, curveball — which was sharp. Ten punchouts, got into the sixth inning. I thought he was fantastic.”
But it didn’t end with Cease. In fact, that was just the beginning.
Behind Cease was a solid defense that, on Friday night, excelled at the fundamentals of the game. From Fernando Tatis Jr. using his elite arm strength to throw out Josh Bell attempting to take third base on a flyout in the seventh inning, to Wandy Peralta catching Bell stealing second base to end the eighth inning — then executing a double play to end the game in the ninth — all systems were working smoothly for the Padres.
“Wandy, nice job of finishing out,” Shildt said. “I love that play [in the eighth] in the sense that, you know, they’re trying to steal a run and Wandy just steps off, under control, gives it to [Xander Bogaerts, who’s] got his court awareness up, head on a swivel, but also knows ‘Hey, I got the jump on the guy,’ and goes and eliminates [him at the] end of that inning. So then, of course, the ninth was pretty special.”
Then, there was the small ball. The first run was scored via a sac fly from Jake Cronenworth in the second inning. Another run crossed in the seventh on a sac bunt from Díaz.
The winning blow came in the top of the ninth thanks to more small ball: singles to lead off the inning from Cronenworth and Jose Iglesias, before Cronenworth came home on another sac bunt from Díaz. A few batters later, it was Machado’s turn to crank the ball out of the park.
Machado sent the fifth pitch he saw from Washington closer Kyle Finnegan — a 96-mph four-seam fastball up and middle — over the fence in left field. His 18th homer of the year had his team breaking out in celebration.
“I was in the training room,” Cease said. “Yeah, it was pretty sick. … We just freaked out, we’re like, ‘when he’s up there, it almost feels kind of inevitable.’ So you’re just like sitting there waiting, and when he actually does it, it’s just really cool.”
“Everybody was yelling,” Díaz said. “You know, what’s crazy [is that] we, in that situation, in the ninth, winning by one run, hitting a grand slam, we go like, ‘Oh my god!’ Like, now we secured the win.”
Beyond just the game, though, the grand slam — like Cease’s performance — is perhaps a sign of what’s to come in the second half of the season.
“It’s huge,” Machado said. “It’s a great way to start off the second half for sure. Great defensive game, great pitching performance. I think just overall, really good game to start off the second half, to get us going.”
