That’s baseball.
After so many games this season, some version of that adage, a verbal shrug and a nod to how unpredictable the sport is, has been uttered in the Padres clubhouse.
Yes, it is baseball.
But the Padres can no longer afford that as an explanation for losses that could have or should have been wins if they want to continue playing beyond Sept. 27.
So it was fortunate for them that the Rockies play a shoddy version of the game.
The Padres beat the team with the worst record in the major leagues 8-7 on Tuesday night at Petco Park when Xander Bogaerts drove in Jackson Merrill with a sacrifice fly in the ninth inning.
“It had a little bit of everything, right?” said Fernando Tatis Jr., who had the first five-hit game of his career. “It was fun and weird to watch at the same time. But we got a ‘W,’ and that’s all that matters at this point.”
The Padres’ fourth consecutive victory kept them 1½ games behind the Diamondbacks in the race for the National League’s final wild-card spot, got them above .500 for the first time since July 1 and served to keep pointing their front office toward being buyers before Monday’s trade deadline.
The Padres lost a 2-0 lead, came back from a pair of two-run deficits and then a one-run deficit and finally won it when Mason Miller struck out all three batters he faced in the top of the ninth and the offense followed by scoring for a fifth consecutive inning.
Merrill singled to start the bottom of the ninth, stole second and advanced to third when the throw from catcher Hunter Goodman bounced into center field.
After walks to Luis Rengifo and Sung-Mun Song, Bogaerts hit a fly ball to center field that allowed Merrill to score.
One of the five errors in the game was a gaffe by Bogaerts in the eighth inning that helped the Rockies take a 7-6 lead.
“Tough error right there,” Bogaerts said of the grounder he simply could not hold onto. “Sucked for the moment, you know. But it’s a nice way to finish, for sure.”
There was certainly a measure of resilience in the victory.
“We’re continuing to fight,” Bogaerts said. “I mean, I think everyone in here knows where we are and trying to do our best and do whatever it takes to win.”
But the Padres were able to make it to that point almost in spite of themselves — and very much because they were playing the Rockies.
“Very sloppy throughout, just both sides of the ball,” Padres starting pitcher Michael King said. “Very happy we came away with the win. … Especially now, wins are tough to come by. We’ve experienced that. So yeah, a win’s a win. I know we’ve been phenomenal in the later innings, and we tried to give it away, but the offense got it right back for us. So it was a big one.”
The first two times the Padres tied the game, the Rockies got the lead back.
Colorado scored twice in the seventh inning off Bradgley Rodriguez, a half-inning after the Padres had pulled even with a run that should have been more.
The Padres tied the game in the bottom of the seventh before Bogaerts booted what would have been the third out in the top of the eighth. That loaded the bases, and Adrian Morejón walked in the go-ahead run.
Bogaerts’ blunder was the Padres’ only error. The Padres scored as a direct result of the Rockies’ first two errors and could have (and arguably should have) scored more in both those innings and multiple others.
Xander Bogaerts of the San Diego Padres hits a walk-off sacrifice fly against the Colorado Rockies during the ninth inning at Petco Park on Tuesday, July 28, 2026 in San Diego, California. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
The Padres made a third out at the plate in the second inning, had their fifth and sixth inning rallies truncated by double-play grounders and failed to add on in the seventh and eighth innings after having a runner at second base with one out.
And one rough inning by their best starting pitcher and a slew of missed opportunities had them in trouble.
Rockies starter Michael Lorenzen came into the game having allowed more hits (141) than any pitcher in the major leagues. And he had yielded those in just 100 innings — 20 fewer than any pitcher within 10 hits of his total.
The Padres got eight hits and had Lorenzen out of the game two batters (and no outs) into the fifth inning.
But they couldn’t keep promising innings going.
Gavin Sheets’ two-out walk preceded a single by Bogaerts, a double by Luis Campusano and a single by Tatis that gave the Padres a 2-0 lead in the second inning.
Lorenzen did not retire anyone for the third out. Instead, Campusano was thrown out by right fielder Jake McCarthy trying to follow Bogaerts home on Tatis’ single.
From that run not realized, the game quickly leaked away.
King had thrown just 24 pitches and allowed only a single in the first two innings. But a fastball down the middle on the first pitch in the third inning was hit over the wall in right field by Willi Castro to halve the lead and begin a barrage.
Edouard Julien followed with a double sliced softly the other way just inside the left field line. And after King struck out Ezequiel Tovar, McCarthy drove in Julien with a single and Mickey Moniak resumed his destruction of his hometown team with a two-run homer.
It was the La Costa Canyon High School alumnus’ fifth home run in his past six games at Petco Park.
Manny Machado #13 and Ty France #25 of the San Diego Padres hug during the seventh inning against the Colorado Rockies at Petco Park on Tuesday, July 28, 2026 in San Diego, California. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
In between singles by Manny Machado and Merrill in the bottom of the third, Ty France launched a ball that was caught at the wall in left field, and Rengifo had a 104 mph line drive caught by first baseman TJ Rumfield to end the inning.
In the fourth, Craig Stammen and infield coach Ryan Goins were ejected. Their being sent off was the culmination of a strange few minutes in which Bogaerts was not allowed to challenge a strike call because home plate umpire Jeremie Rehak judged he had challenged the call because the dugout had loudly voiced its displeasure. After Bogaerts grounded into a fielder’s choice, Rehak took exception to what he heard from Stammen and first base umpire Dan Iassogna didn’t like what Goins said.
Craig Stammen #14 of the San Diego Padres argues with umpire Jeremie Rehak #35 during the fourth inning against the Colorado Rockies at Petco Park on Tuesday, July 28, 2026 in San Diego, California. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
The Padres got to 4-3 in the fifth, but even that left them disappointed.
Tatis led off with a single and got to third when he blocked Julien’s view on Cronenworth’s ensuing groundball, causing the Rockies’ second baseman to let the ball bounce off his glove. Machado followed with a single before France grounded into a double play and Merrill struck out.
Walks by Sheets and Bogaerts and a single by Campusano loaded the bases in the sixth, and Tatis tied the game with a single before Cronenworth grounded into a double play.
Merrill followed a walk by Machado and France’s single with an RBI single before an out was made in the seventh. Luis Rengifo’s sacrifice bunt moved France and Merrill up 90 feet. That is when things got comical.
Freddy Fermin was called on to pinch-hit for Gavin Sheets against left-hander Brennan Bernardino and hit a routine groundball to Castro at third base that cause France to retreat until the glanced went off Castro’s glove and rolled into shallow left field. France then took off for home, but because Tovar quickly ran over to grab the ball and because France is not fast, there would have been a close play at the plate had Tovar not dropped the ball after picking it up.
That left the game tied and with two men on with one out. A strikeout and fly ball out followed.
Tatis led off the bottom of the eighth with a single before he was erased at second on Cronenworth’s fielder’s choice. Machado followed with a single to the gap in right-center that McCarthy bobbled, allowing Cronenworth to race around third and get home to tie the game again.
But France followed with a strikeout and Machado, who had advanced to second on McCarthy’s throw home, was thrown out trying to steal third.
“I think the good thing was we didn’t go scoreless in some of those,” Stammen said. “We’d score one where we should have scored, you know, hopefully two or three or had the chance for a big inning and it just didn’t work out. … We had opportunities to push through a little bit more, increase our lead, give us a little bit of breathing room for the back end of the bullpen, but we were unable to do that.”
But, in the end, no one had to fight for words and lean on a cliche to explain another loss. For all the lost chances, there was enough for their 30th comeback victory, tied for fourth most in the majors.
“It’s one thing that this team for sure has in it is the fight to not give up and to continually go back after them,” Stammen said. “… To keep fighting, keep trying to find a way to to scratch a run across.”