Fernando Tatis Jr., Ramón Laureano turn around Padres’ fortunes in 9th inning for victory over Red Sox

BOSTON — In the end, it was just enough for a much-needed victory.

In the end, Fernando Tatis Jr. was enough.

Having struck out in his first four at-bats on Saturday and in his only at-bat ever against Aroldis Chapman, Tatis came to the plate with two outs in the ninth inning of a tie game and, down to his last strike against the hard-throwing left-hander, turned around a 99 mph sinker with a 114 mph line drive to center field.

Tatis’ double was followed by Ramón Laureano’s single muscled off the end of his bat into left-center field, which sent Tatis sprinting around third base and sliding across the plate with the go-ahead run.

And after one of the Padres’ back-end relievers had blown his second lead of the season in the eighth inning, Mason Miller closed out the Red Sox in the ninth to secure a 3-2 victory.

Miller’s third save in three tries followed Adrian Morejón blowing a one-run lead, this time with help from a defensive gaffe.

The furious finish came after the Padres took an early lead and set up Sunday as a chance for the Padres to win the first of their three series this season.

In a game that began with a stiff wind making the 43 degree announced temperature seem much colder, the Padres made enough of their 12 baserunners count.

And Randy Vásquez had held on for dear life for his second quality start.

Vásquez finished last season and began this one by striking out more batters and allowing fewer baserunners. His pitches strayed more Saturday, and he was back to playing traffic cop.

He stranded a runner in scoring position in three of his six innings but allowed a run in just one of those to grin his way through his second quality start of the season.

Meanwhile, the Padres took advantage of a young starting pitcher who struggled to find any part of the strike zone except the heart of it.

Early Connelly, a 24-year-old left-hander, brought a 2.19 career ERA into Saturday’s game. He had struck out 35 and walked six in 24⅔ innings over five starts.

He walked four batters in the first three innings, and the Padres only let him off the hook in the first one.

Two walks in the first inning led to nothing before one in the second led to the Padres taking a 1-0 lead.

Freddy Fermin led off the second inning by walking on five pitches before Ty France crushed a fastball in the center of the strike zone to nearly the top of the Green Monster. That moved Fermin to third base, but the ball bounced back quickly enough that France was held to a single.

Jake Cronenworth got a fat fastball as well, but he topped it toward first base for a groundout that moved France to second base. Another groundout, by Bryce Johnson, drove in Fermin before Fernando Tatis Jr. struck out for the second time.

The Red Sox erased the lead in the bottom of the second, as Vásquez caught a bit of the wildness.

Willson Contreras started the inning by lining a 2-1 sinker through the left side before Vásquez walked Wilyer Abreu on four pitches.

Manny Machado went to his knees and backhanded a hard grounder to save a run and get the runner at second before Marcelo Mayer’s fly ball to center field drove in Contreras.

The third inning began with a one-pitch out before Miguel Andujar finished off a 10-pitch at-bat by driving a fastball up and in off the plate into the left field corner for a double. Machado followed with a walk and Xander Bogaerts a lineout to left field, but Fermin also reached up and in to ground a double down the left field line to score Andujar.

Early had thrown 80 pitches by the time he ended the third, but he came back out and got through the fourth by throwing just eight more. Half of those were spent on his third strikeout of Tatis.

The Padres faced a new pitcher in the fifth and kept putting runners on, though they could not turn an Andujar single and Machado’s third walk of the game with one out into anything against Ryan Walker.

They did not threaten again until the ninth.

And they had to do that with Chapman on the mound after an eventful previous half-inning.

Morejón surrendered singles to start the bottom of the eighth, which gave the Red Sox men at the corners with no outs.

Morejón struck out Trevor Story for the first out, and Red Sox manager Alex Cora sent up pinch-hitter Andruw Monasterio in place of No.3 hitter Jarren Duran.

Monastaerio grounded the ninth pitch he saw from Morejón back to the mound, momentarily seeming to set up an inning-ending double play.

Morejón rifled a throw to second baseman Jake Cronenworth, who dropped the ball while moving it from his glove to his hand, allowing Ceddanne Rafaela to score from third.