MIAMI — Jackson Merrill made a mad dash and a bold decision.
The Four Horsemen made it matter.
The Padres’ 100th game was like so many others this season — low-scoring and close, constructed by good plays and good fortune and good pitching.
“A lot to unpack in a 2-1 ballgame,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said.
That is the score by which his team beat the Marlins on Monday night to get to 10 games over .500 for the first time since June 10.
The Padres’ seventh victory in their past nine games came about in familiar fashion, as they scored twice in the second inning and then turned the game over to their back-end relievers starting in the fifth inning.
There was a one-run lead for Adrian Morejón, Jeremiah Estrada, Jason Adam and Robert Suarez — dubbed the Four Horsemen by Shildt — to protect because Merrill ran through a “stop” sign on his way to scoring from first base in the second inning.
“I was already going fast,” Merrill said. “If I stopped, I was gonna be thrown out at third. So I just kept going. And it happened to be the winning run, so I don’t regret doing it at all. Even if I got thrown out, I wouldn’t have regretted it.”
There was nothing to regret Monday — not even stranding Fernando Tatis Jr. in the fifth inning after a lead-off double or the 400-foot home run El Cajon native Kyle Stowers hit for the Marlins in the fourth inning — because the Padres’ defense and their relievers did what they have done often enough that the Padres are 55-45 and 3½ games up in the race for the National League’s final playoff spot.
“We are a good team,” first baseman Luis Arraez said. “We play really good baseball right now.”
San Diego Padres fans cheer as Jackson Merrill returns to the dugout after scoring on a double by San Diego Padres MartÃn Maldonado, in the second inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins, Monday, July 21, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Arraez’s leaping catch and tag while absorbing a collision ended the eighth inning one play after a nifty double play that started with a quick dish by second baseman Jose Iglesias.
Earlier, with the Marlins having singled and walked with one out against Padres starter Randy Vásquez in the third inning, Augustin Ramírez scorched a 115 mph line drive toward third baseman Manny Machado, who fell to his knees as he lunged to the left and threw to Iglesias covering second to end the threat.
“We played really good defense,” Shildt said.
The two defensive plays certainly helped Adam, who ended up throwing just six pitches in the eighth. That followed the 12 Estrada threw in his 1-2-3 sixth and the 19 thrown by Morejón in his 1⅔ innings after taking over for Vásquez with one out and a runner on first in the fifth inning. Suarez threw just 10 pitches while earning his major league-leading 29th save.
The Padres are 43-15 in games in which even half of the Horsemen have pitched.
“We have the lead, we know we’re going to be in a good spot,” Machado said.
Still, Machado lamented, not for the first time, “We need to score more.”
Miami Marlins’ Kyle Stowers runs past San Diego Padres second base Jose Iglesias as he rounds the bases after hitting a single-run homer in the fourth inning of a baseball game against the San Diego Padres, Monday, July 21, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Monday was the 37th game in which the Padres have scored two runs or fewer, sixth most in the major leagues.
They were facing 6-foot-8 Eury Pérez for the first time, and they did score twice as many runs against the hard-throwing 22-year-old right-hander as the previous three teams he faced had combined for over 18 innings.
The Padres hit Pérez hard with mostly nothing to show for it in the first inning before taking a 2-0 lead in the second.
Xander Bogaerts led off the inning by turning around a first-pitch fastball and sending it a projected 393 feet and off the wall in right-center field for a double.
He moved to third on a wild pitch while Merrill was up and scored on a single Merrill laced into right field.
The Padres’ Jackson Merrill slides in to home past Marlins catcher Agustín Ramírez to score on a double by the Martín Maldonado in the second inning of Monday’s game at loanDepot park. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Merrill was still at first base when, with two outs, Martín Maldonado lined a double just inside the left-field line that rolled into the corner.
Stowers got to the ball and got off a good throw, and third base coach Tim Leiper made what seemed like a prudent decision to hold up his hands. But Merrill never slowed and slid in headfirst ahead of a relay throw from shortstop Otto Lopez that bounced past Ramírez, the Marlins’ catcher.
“It was pretty magnificent for me, once he was safe,” Shildt said with a smile. “Clearly, it was the difference in the game. … He had a sense of where he is on that play, because it’s in front of him. We encourage our guys, anytime the ball is in front, you really don’t need a base coach in that moment. So he’s able to see in front of him. He knows his speed. He can feel the trajectory, and he was flying. And, obviously, a big swing by Maldy as well.”
Originally Published: July 21, 2025 at 6:08 PM PDT