Juan Soto of the San Diego Padres came to bat against his former team, the Washington Nationals, with the bases loaded and two outs in the seventh inning of a tie game. The sellout crowd of 41,820 anticipated something big from its new superstar.
It didn’t happen. Soto went down swinging on a 96 mph sinker from Victor Arano and slammed his bat and helmet to the ground.
That’s the kind of night it was as the Nationals, who have the worst record in the majors, won 3-1 against the Padres, who are scrapping to hold onto the NL’s third wild-card spot, knowing they’ll have do it without superstar Fernando Tatis JR, who was suspended for 80 games last week due to testing positive for PED’s.
The teams staggered through the game without much offense in their fourth meeting since their blockbuster trade on Aug. 2 that sent Soto and Josh Bell to San Diego for a package of players that included Luke Voit. The Padres had just three hits and the Nationals had just six, three of them in the ninth. Manny Machado tied the game at 1 with his 22nd homer of the year off Anibal Sánchez in the fourth. He also extended his hitting streak to 10 games.
Josh Hader relieved Yu Darvish (10-7, 3.39ERA) who went 8.1 innings of one run ball, allowing five hits while striking out six. With the game tied at 1 after the right-hander allowed two singles sandwiched around the first out in the ninth. Hader, acquired from Milwaukee on Aug. 1, hit Voit with a pitch to load the bases and then walked Nelson Cruz to give Washington the 2-1 lead. Keibert Ruiz followed with a sacrifice fly, and they had insurance. Carl Edwards pitched a perfect eighth for the win. Kyle Finnegan pitched the ninth for his sixth save. The Padres took two of three at Washington last weekend. This was a rematch as Saturday, when the Nationals beat Darvish and the Padres 4-3. Sánchez got a no-decision.
I used AP to help with the structure of this article.
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