SAN DIEGO – Nico Hoerner pushed up from his head-first slide into third base and pounded his chest, shouting again on the raucous Cubs dugout that was celebrating his go-ahead RBI.
“It’s enjoyable once they’re within the third base dugout and it’s proper in entrance of you and seeing everybody’s faces,” Hoerner mentioned after the Cubs’ 2-1 extra-innings win Tuesday. “And you set a variety of time into this recreation, so that you’ve received to get pleasure from these particular issues.”
Hoerner’s Tenth-inning leadoff triple proved to be the distinction within the recreation. The Cubs evened the collection at Petco Park and handed the Padres their first dwelling lack of the season on the again of a powerful pitching efficiency for 10 innings.
“That was the true story of the sport,” Hoerner mentioned. “Shota [Imanaga] after which everybody else that adopted was so, so good. And even in a recreation the place we left some outs on the sphere, to nonetheless solely hand over one run to a extremely sturdy offense like that, and have so many guys contribute – that was simply an enormous, large efficiency by so many individuals that made that recreation potential. That was unbelievable.”
The Padres’ solely run was avoidable.
Imanaga, after holding the Padres offense at bay for 4 innings, received Manny Machado to hit a fly ball into foul territory on the primary pitch of his fifth-inning at-bat. However it glanced off Kyle Tucker’s glove – an error for Tucker and a second probability for Machado.
On the fourth pitch of the at-bat, Machado popped up in foul territory. However third baseman Gage Workman’s tried basket catch additionally failed. One other error. And Machado stepped again into the batter’s field.
The battle ended on the ninth pitch, when Machado turned on a fastball down and in, and put it into the left-field seats.
“I imply, give Machado credit score,” supervisor Craig Counsell mentioned. “I don’t know, as a fan, you’re pissed off that we didn’t make some performs. However give Machado some credit score there.”
The Cubs evened the rating the subsequent inning with some small ball.
Dansby Swanson and Nico Hoerner hit back-to-back singles to steer off the sixth. Then the Padres changed beginning pitcher Randy Vásquez with left-hander Adrian Morejon because the Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong got here as much as bat.
Crow-Armstrong dropped a bunt up the primary bottom line, and with Swanson sprinting dwelling, Padres first baseman Luis Arraez fumbled the switch. Swanson dove throughout the plate and Crow-Armstrong reached first with out a throw.
Cubs relievers Daniel Palencia, Julian Merryweather, Porter Hodge and Ryan Pressly shut down the Padres offense by way of the rest of regulation, dealing with the minimal from the sixth inning by way of the ninth.
After Hoerner drove within the automated extra-innings runner within the Tenth, left-hander Caleb Thielbar took the mound within the backside of the inning with a runner on second and barely any wiggle room.
“It’s nothing new, however it by no means will get simpler,” Thielbar mentioned. “Particularly with a staff like this, they simply don’t strike out an entire lot, make a variety of contact, and also you’ve actually simply received to hope the ball bounces your means. And tonight it did.”
Thielbar solely allowed yet another baserunner, pitching round Padres star Fernando Tatís Jr. and deliberately strolling him in a 2-0 rely, earlier than securing the ultimate out on a fly ball from Arraez.
