SAN DIEGO -- The Padres have a month left to decide their fate in this topsy-turvy National League Wild Card race. They’ve got a brutal schedule and some tricky obstacles to overcome.\n\nThey also have
It sure looked different from any game the Padres have played lately, and rightly so. They haven’t had too many wins like this one over the past month.\n\n“It felt like when Manny put a charge into that ball, it took something with it,” said Padres manager Jayce Tingler. “It took a weight off the shoulders. You started to see the smiles and the body language and all that.”
When the dust settled, the Padres remained half a game back of the Reds in the race for the second NL Wild Card spot. But they also gained a game of separation on the Phillies and Cardinals, pursuers who both lost.\n\n“It’s getting intense as far as the playoff picture,” said
Machado, meanwhile, went 2-for-4, adding a double and a hit-by-pitch to his 453-foot home run in the seventh inning -- his longest of the season. All year, the Padres have experimented with different batting orders, but they might be onto something here with Tatis hitting first and Machado second. The logic is sound enough:\n\n“It makes it tough on teams when those guys are dialed in,” said Tingler. “Obviously at 1-2, those guys are going to get the most at-bats.”
The game hung in the balance until a fateful seventh inning.
In the bottom half of the frame, Tatis worked a one-out walk against Astros reliever Cristian Javier. Two pitches later, the right-hander left a belt-high fastball over the middle of the plate, and Machado made no mistake. After a