Padres win resumed game, dominated by Fried and Braves in nightcap
Credit: Padres
Ready to hop in your time machine and go back to the All-Star Game?
Four San Diego Padres were featured in the game and along with current Padre Adam Frazier. The future looked so bright. Then the skies darkened, literally. Over the next ten games, the Padres would experience three different delays, two of which to rain.
On Friday, the Padres finally made up one of those games versus the Atlanta Braves. This game started in the bottom of the 5th inning with a 5-4 lead.
A brief recap of how the game got to this point. The Padres started off hot in the first inning. Trent Grisham doubled, Fernando Tatis Jr. walked, and Jake Cronenworth singled to load the bases. Eric Hosmer hit a sacrifice fly to score the first run, and Tatis scored on a wild pitch as Wil Myers walked. Ha-Seong Kim doubled to cap off a four-run first inning.
After the big first inning, Grisham leads off the inning once again. He reached base via the walk then later scored on a Cronenworth single.
Now it was Atlanta’s turn to fight back. They did so by hitting two doubles, a single, and walking twice to make it a 5-4 game.
Back to the action that happened on Friday. Adam Duvall, who wasn’t on the Braves when they played the first game, hit a game-tying home run in the bottom of the 6th inning. Despite tying the game, this set up the Padres for a big moment. Tatis is under a microscope as he is in a close MVP race with Bryce Harper. How about a game-winning home run to sway some voters?
NO. 30 FOR TATIS🔥🔥🔥
but actually his 41st😏#HungryForMore pic.twitter.com/dmOCkqrIff
— Bally Sports San Diego (@BallySportsSD) September 25, 2021
Tatis hit his 41st home run of the season. That ties him with Phil Nevin for the second-most home runs by a Padre in a single season.
The Padres needed this momentum to fuel them for Game 2. They still had an outside chance at making the playoffs, but losing would be devastating to their October aspirations.
Any momentum from the first game quickly faded. The Braves quickly attacked for one run in the first inning. In the second inning, Dansby Swanson hit a two-run homer to right field. Atlanta would tack on one last run in the 6th inning when Adam Duvall singled to score Ozzie Albies.
Max Fried took the bump for the Braves. Back in 2014, the Padres traded him to the Braves in a deal that brought Justin Upton to San Diego. In his revenge game, Fried dominated in all aspects. He threw a 98-pitch complete-game shutout. He only allowed three hits while never walking a batter. The only player who had any answer was Tatis Jr. He added a double and single to his MVP resume.
The Padres ended the day seven games out of the NL Wildcard. Playoff baseball is now out of the question. The new question is, “Will the Padres end the season with a winning record?” That’s a steep drop-off for a team that entered the season as one of the top World Series contenders.
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“I think we will have more time to reflect after the season. It’s hard to reflect when you are going day to day and trying to stay in the grind. There are reasons all across the board. It’s never one thing. It’s probably a combination of things. We are left with two of our starting pitchers. With Darvish and Musgrove going right now,” Jayce Tingler said of his team’s struggles. He went on to mention that the offense found itself slumping at times and attributed the struggles to a combination of different things.
The Padres will look toward staying healthy and help Tatis fight for an MVP.
Evan is a student finishing up a degree in Finance from Northern Arizona University. The ability to break down numbers and find the story behind them has lead to his first of writing for East Village times. He covers baseball which is the sport he grew up playing and has followed even after his playing years.