The Padres looked in control with a 4-1 lead in the ninth, but things unraveled quickly. Josh Hader came in and couldn’t find the strike zone. He walked the leadoff batter, gave up a bloop single, and hit the next guy. Another walk brought in a run. Then he walked in a second run. Evan Longoria tied the game with a sac fly, and the Padres had to go to the bullpen. Jock Peterson came up and struck out looking at an ugly swing.
With the game tied, San Francisco turned to their sidearming closer Tyler Rogers. He worked through a couple of outs, but Juan Soto stepped in and made things interesting. On a foul ball, Soto claimed catcher’s interference, challenged the call, and got it. That put him on first. The crowd was into it, and Manny Machado came up to the plate with the game on the line. After letting a middle-middle fastball go by, he got a hanging slider and crushed it for a walk-off three-run homer.
The crowd erupted. The bench cleared to celebrate. Musgrove hit Manny with a celebration water bottle to the chest. Hader, who blew the save, still joined in the fun and shared a hug with Machado, thanking him for bailing him out. The Padres pulled off a dramatic late rally and capped it with a big swing from their star.