Padres sweep Braves from wild-card series to face Dodgers – San Diego Union-Tribune

The Padres kept going, so they're still going.

Wednesday night's 5-4 victory that swept the Braves out of the National League Wild Card Series was both exhilarating and worrisome, emblematic of how the Padres have operated all season.

A five-run second inning that left their starting pitcher with strained elbows and more than four surviving innings from five relievers provided the highlights and sighs of a trying night for the Padres and the 47,705 that filled Petco Park.

When catcher Kyle Higashioka caught Travis d'Arnaud's foul pop-up while tripping over first baseman Donovan Solano in the final out, the Padres players climbed over the railing. After loud cheers, the crowd erupted in chants of “Beat LA.”

For the third time in five years, the Padres will play the Dodgers in the National League Division Series, starting Saturday in Los Angeles.

But as the Padres hugged each other on the field and donned NLDS T-shirts and prepared to spray champagne in the clubhouse, there were also concerns.

Joe Musgrove, who was out for two and a half months from late May to mid-August with various elbow problems, exited in the fourth inning with what the team called a tightness in his right elbow.

Musgrove had given up nine consecutive batters when catcher Kyle Higashioka, after throwing a 2-1 curveball to Matt Olson, immediately walked to the mound and seconds later pitched coach Ruben Niebla started from the dugout. Athletic trainer Ben Fraser and manager Mike Shildt followed.

After about a minute of discussion, Shildt patted Musgrove on the chest, and the right-hander walked with Fraser to the Padres dugout.

Bryan Hoeing replaced Musgrove and retired Olson on a pop-up before giving up a leadoff home run to Jorge Soler in the fifth inning.

Jeremiah Estrada started the sixth and allowed a single with one out and another with two. He left the game with two outs and runners on the corners, and left-handed batter Olson came on.

Left-hander Tanner Scott came into the game to face the Braves' cleanup hitter and left runners stranded when Olson singled to left fielder Jurickson Profar.

Scott followed a leadoff walk to Soler with three straight outs in the seventh.

Jason Adam gave up a single to Orlando Arcia and a home run to Michael Harris II before getting three outs in the eighth.

Robert Suarez, the closer who missed three of six save chances late in the regular season, then converted his fourth in a row by going 1-2-3 in the ninth.

What the Padres did to win on Wednesday might have been surprising if they hadn't done something like that quite a bit over the past six months.

That's her thing. It doesn't matter what happens until what happens matters.

On Wednesday, they failed to score in the first inning after the bases were loaded with no outs.

An inning later, they scored five runs after having no one on with two outs.

On consecutive at-bats in the first inning, Manny Machado struck out and Jackson Merrill grounded in a fielder's choice with a first-pitch sweeper that was barely off the ground. In the second inning, Machado broke the 1-1 tie with a two-run double and Merrill made it 5-1 with a two-run triple.

The five-run inning, which began with Higashioka's second home run in two nights, was the Padres' second in four games but also just their second in 60 games. To that point, they had scored at least five runs in an inning and led the MLB 12 times.

This is the 2024 Padres.

Sometimes they falter. But they don't stay down. And they seem to be capable of anything.

Before Musgrove became dominant to his departure, the Braves ambushed him in the first inning when Michael Harris II took the game's first pitch for a double down the right field line and went to third on a groundout by Ozzie Albies, scoring on a lineout to left field by Marcel Ozuna.

The Padres began loading the bases in the bottom of the first without getting a ball out of the infield, and then continued to fail to get the ball out of the infield and score.

Luis Arraez and Fernando Tatis Jr. scored with infield singles for the win – Arraez with a slow bouncer up the middle and Tatis with a 100-mph line drive off the left hip of Braves starter Max Fried. Profar followed with a dribble to the right side of the mound that Fried caught and threw late to reach second.

The potential for a big innings faded pretty quickly.

Machado struck out in three throws. Merrill then put the first pitch he saw to first base, where Olson caught the ball and threw it home to knock Arraez out of the field. And Merrill was pushed out at second on a grounder to shortstop by Xander Bogaerts.

As was the case with much of their 4-0 win in Game 1, the Padres didn't do much after the second inning.

But in the postseason, the only thing that counts is the result.

Originally published: October 2, 2024 at 8:29 p.m