Padres score 3 runs in 10th, hold on to hand Pirates their 3rd consecutive loss

Just after the Pittsburgh Pirates gave up the lead, Andrew McCutchen launched a home run to tie the score in the fourth inning, then added a two-run single in the sixth for the lead.

With two runners in scoring position and the Pirates clinging to a one-run advantage, Aroldis Chapman blew a 104.7-mph sinker past Manny Machado to end the top of the eighth, then froze in his staredown pose before flashing a smile at the stunned San Diego Padres star.

Despite impressive performances from a pair of aging superstars in their mid-30s who proved they aren’t past their prime, the San Diego Padres got a game-tying home run from 21-year-old All-Star Jackson Merrill off Pirates closer David Bednar and then survived a bases-loaded jam in the ninth.

The Padres scored three runs in the 10th inning and held on for a 9-8 win Wednesday night before 21,528 at PNC Park in a game that lasted 3 hours, 56 minutes. It was the third consecutive defeat for the Pirates (56-57), who slipped to four games back in the wild card race and dropped below .500 for the first time since July 13. San Diego has a chance to sweep the three-game series when they play the finale at 12:35 p.m. Thursday.

“We’ve got to bounce back,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “I think the fact that what happened in the 10th, we just continued to go, we continued to have good at-bats. We just weren’t able to get that one big hit at the end to finish it.”

Merrill, who went 4 for 6 with three runs and three RBIs, delivered his third game-tying or go-ahead homer in the ninth inning or later this season. That’s tied for the second-most by a rookie in a season in the expansion era (since 1961), behind only Adolis Garcia (four, in 2021) .

San Diego (63-52) scored three runs against Colin Holderman in the 10th when Xander Bogaerts singled to left to drive in automatic runner Luis Arraez, Machado hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Ha-Seong Kim, and Bogaerts scored on Merrill’s lineout to left when he knocked the ball out of catcher Yasmani Grandal’s glove after the tag at the plate.

After Padres lefty Tanner Scott walked Michael A. Taylor, McCutchen and Bryan Reynolds in succession to start the 10th, the latter with the bases loaded to score automatic runner Oneil Cruz and cut it to 9-7, they brought in Adrian Morejon. His first pitch was a wild pitch that allowed Taylor to score to make it 9-8.

McCutchen was forced out at home on Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s sharp grounder to short but veered off the baseline to allow Reynolds to advance to third. But Morejon struck out Connor Joe for the second out. Despite the home plate collision, Shelton opted not to pinch-hit for Grandal, who grounded out to end the game.

The 37-year-old McCutchen went 2 for 5 with three RBIs, matching Hall of Famer Ralph Kiner (802) for the sixth most RBIs in club history. McCutchen needs one more extra-base hit to join Willie Stargell, Honus Wagner, Paul Waner and Roberto Clemente as the franchise’s only players with at least 600.

The 36-year-old Chapman pumped up a depleted bullpen not only by navigating the top of the Padres’ order but hitting 105.1 mph and 104.7 mph on the radar gun in the process. They are the two hardest-thrown pitches by a Pirate since detailed pitch tracking became available in 2008. Chapman has thrown 43 pitches of 102 mph or faster this season. More important, he threw 21 of his 29 pitches for strikes.

“It feels good to be in that spot right now,” Chapman said through interpreter Stephen Morales. “I struggled a little bit earlier in the season. And, as a pitcher, that’s what you want. You just want to be ahead in counts and attacking the strike zone, and I think I’m in a pretty good spot right now.”

The Pirates took a 1-0 lead in the first when Kiner-Falefa hit a bloop to right that bounced past a diving Bryce Johnson for a two-out triple, then scored when Rowdy Tellez connected on a check-swing single down the third-base line. After Grandal drew a four-pitch walk, Ke’Bryan Hayes singled to score Tellez to make it 2-0.

Merrill cut the Padres’ deficit in half with a leadoff home run when Marco Gonzales left an 0-1 fastball over the middle of the plate, crushing it 442 feet and into the hedges in center for his 14th homer.

“Jackson Merrill is a great player,” Gonzales said. “I just didn’t get to my spot and I paid for it.”

Jared Triolo reached third on Machado’s three-base throwing error, putting a runner in scoring position to start the bottom of the second and scoring on a flare to left by Reynolds for a 3-1 Pirates lead.

That changed in the fourth, when the Padres got back-to-back singles from Donovan Solano and Merrill, when Tellez got a glove on his grounder to the right side. Kyle Higashioka smacked a first-pitch changeup 420 feet to center for a three-run homer and 4-3 Padres lead.

McCutchen tied the score with a two-out solo shot, crushing Michael King’s 2-1 sinker 407 feet to the left-field bleachers for his 14th home run in the bottom of the fourth inning to become the seventh player in Pirates history with 800 RBIs.

The Padres took advantage of the Pirates’ defensive shortcomings to score the go-ahead run in the fifth. Machado singled on a grounder to Gonzales, then tested Grandal’s arm by stealing second base. That put Machado in position to score on Merrill’s two-out single to right, where he beat Ji Hwan Bae’s throw to the plate for a 5-4 lead.

That was it for Gonzales, who allowed five runs on eight hits and two walks with three strikeouts in 4⅔ innings. He was replaced by Hunter Stratton, who gave up a single to Higashioka and walked pinch hitter David Peralta to load the bases but got Tyler Wade to ground out.

McCutchen came through again in the sixth, as the Pirates took advantage of a pair of passed balls by the Padres. After Hayes hit a leadoff single, he advanced to second when Jeremiah Estrada’s pitch got by Higashioka. Estrada struck out Bae on a pitch that squirted under the catcher and allowed Bae to reach first and Hayes to advance to third.

Estrada got Cruz looking and Taylor swinging for two more strikeouts, but McCutchen smacked a two-out, two-run single to center to give the Pirates a 6-5 lead.

Chapman provided high drama in the eighth. After he hit Luis Arraez with a pitch — despite protestations from the fans, who booed when the call was upheld after video review — and gave up a single to Kim, Chapman got Bogaerts swinging and Machado looking at a 104.7-mph sinker for a called third strike to end the frame.

Merrill tied the score at 6-6 with out in the ninth when he hammered Bednar’s first pitch, a 97.7-mph four-seamer down the middle, 411 feet to center for his 15th homer. Bednar then hit Jake Cronenworth with a pitch and walked Peralta before striking out Tyler Wade and getting a great effort by Cruz to make a diving stop on an Arraez liner to end the frame.

The Pirates quickly put a pair of runners in scoring position against Robert Suarez in the bottom of the ninth, as Kiner-Falefa hit a leadoff single up the middle and Joe reached on a fielder’s choice when Bogaerts booted a grounder to second for an error. Grandal dropped a perfect sacrifice bunt to advance both runners, and the Padres intentionally walked Hayes to load the bases.

After Bae grounded to Bogaerts, who threw home to force Kiner-Falefa out at the plate, the Padres turned to Scott and the lefty reliever got Cruz to ground out to first to end the scoring threat. The Pirates had a pair of runners in scoring position again in the 10th but left both stranded.

“We kept battling. I think that’s the thing,” Shelton said. “We ended the game with the winning run on base. It’s a challenge when you get down three runs in an extra inning game. We continued to have really good at-bats and gave ourselves a chance to win, just didn’t get a hit to win it. … We’re in every game. We’re battling. We’re battling back. We just haven’t been able to finish games and we’ve got to do that.”