The first half of the season concludes Sunday, and the Padres now have fresh evidence for their belief that Jackson Merrill will return to being a significant contributor in the second half
With a game that was reminiscent of how he finished last season and began this one, Merrill blasted his way out of a slump with a pair of game-tying home runs on Saturday to do the heavy lifting in a 5-4 victory over the Phillies.
“Felt unfamiliar, almost,” said Merrill, who entered the game having not reached base in his previous 24 plate appearances. “No, it felt great, and it felt great to help the team win — in a game that actually was, like, big. The Phillies are a good team. To win the series, yeah, it felt good.”
Jeremiah Estrada became the first Padres reliever this season to pitch for a third day in a row to earn his third save of the season.
His retiring the Phillies’ 1-2-3 batters in order in the ninth inning ended a day in which the Padres otherwise relied on lower-leverage relievers Bryan Hoeing, Wandy Peralta, David Morgan and Yuki Matsui to patch together nine innings.
“The boys came up clutch,” Estrada said. “Merrill doing his Merrill things. Happy to see him back (doing) the stuff that he’s doing. … The last thing I wanted to do is (have the Padres) think about, like, ‘Who’s gonna go in for the ninth?’ Like, I’ll take it.
“I was happy to help out the team. We got the dub. The boys did good — (Yu) Darvish going five and then the rest of the guys in the bullpen just holding it down. The guys came up clutch today.”
Given that they were going to be without the services of at least three of their four best relief pitchers due to their workload, Saturday was probably going to have to go a certain way for the Padres to win.
They were going to need to score more than they usually did.
And four runs off Zack Wheeler is a pretty good night at the plate for any team.
Just two teams had done so (three times) against the Phillies right-hander this season.
The Padres didn’t score at all in eight innings against him on June 30.
Wheeler, who entered the game with the National League’s second-lowest ERA (2.17) and lowest WHIP (0.85), was not quite at his sharpest Saturday.
And Merrill was far more locked in than he had been in a while. He tied the game 2-2 in the Padres’ three-run second inning and tied it 4-4 in the sixth.
Bryan Hoeing #78 of the San Diego Padres pitches against the Philadelphia Phillies during the fifth inning at Petco Park on Saturday, July 12, 2025 in San Diego, CA. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
The Phillies scored twice off Darvish in the second inning to go up 2-0 and twice more in the fifth to go up 4-3.
A sacrifice fly by Manny Machado in the seventh drove in the deciding run, as the Padres secured their first series win over a winning team since taking two of three in Milwaukee from June 6 to 8.
“That was good for us to get that,” Merrill said.
Jackson Merrill #3 of the San Diego Padres rounds the bases after a home run against the Philadelphia Phillies during the second inning at Petco Park on Saturday, July 12, 2025 in San Diego, CA. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
The lasting takeaway from the game, the Padres hope, is what their second-year center fielder did.
Merrill’s first home run was on a 98 mph 1-0 fastball in the heart of the strike zone. The second was on a 95 mph fastball just above the zone.
Merrill had made it a habit of swinging through high fastballs in recent weeks. And he was not doing damage on ones down the middle either, as he had hit .094 (5-for-53) in the 15 games leading up to Saturday.
With his two home runs — the first to left field and the second to right-center — Merrill joined Buster Posey (2021) and Cody Bellinger (2017) as the only players to hit multiple home runs against Wheeler in a game.
“The best thing for me, honestly,” Merrill said of facing Wheeler. “It’s one of the best fastballs I’ve ever seen. It’s probably the best fastball I’ve ever seen. So it was definitely a good matchup for me to go in there and just compete. Just compete. Stop thinking about my swing and just compete.”
Zack Wheeler #45 of the Philadelphia Phillies pitches against the San Diego Padres during the fourth inning at Petco Park on Saturday, July 12, 2025 in San Diego, CA. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Wheeler breezed through the first inning in eight pitches and took the mound in the second with a 2-0 lead.
Gavin Sheets greeted him with a double to right field.
And with one out, something took place that had not in a month and a half.
Merrill stepped to the plate and, for the first time since May 27, sent a ball over the wall.
That tied the game 2-2, and the Padres were not done, in one of the most unlikely of ways.
Jake Cronenworth flared a ball to right-center field that fell in front of diving center fielder Brandon Marsh and then bounced off his glove, allowing Cronenworth to jog into second with a double. Then, after Trenton Brooks struck out, catcher Martín Maldonado singled on a flare to right field for an RBI and his third hit in his past 21 at-bats.
The Padres took a 5-4 lead in the seventh inning when Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a one-out single, moved to third on a single by Luis Arraez and scored on a sacrifice fly by Machado.
“Outstanding team win,” manager Mike Shildt said. “They showed up and got after it.”
Yu Darvish #11 of the San Diego Padres pitches against the Philadelphia Phillies during the second inning at Petco Park on Saturday, July 12, 2025 in San Diego, CA. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Darvish allowed four runs in 4⅔ innings in his second start of the season. His 83 pitches were 19 more than he threw in his debut Monday.
With his pitch count limited to some extent, it was going to take Darvish being pretty sharp to get through six innings.
Even then, the Padres were going to have to rely on their lower-leverage relievers in higher-leverage situations.
Estrada, Jason Adam, Adrian Morejón and Robert Suarez pitched Friday for the second straight game. Adam’s 47 appearances are second most in the major leagues behind the Giants’ Taylor Rogers. Morejón and Estrada have pitched in 46 games and Suarez in 43. Just one other team has even three pitchers who have worked 43 games and no other team has more than one pitcher to have made 46 appearances.
The desire to limit his bullpen’s exposure is why Shildt kept Darvish in as long as he did — after the right-hander had loaded the bases on a single and two walks in the fifth inning. It was not until Emundo Sosa’s single drove in two runs and put the Phillies up 4-3 that Darvish was pulled.
“I thought he was really good,” Shildt said. “The couple runs early, a little self-inflicted. … Took him a little further than we wanted to, but he was in a range that we were comfortable with. And a guy like Darvish, who was wanting the moment, we’re going to give the benefit of the doubt.”
Jackson Merrill #3 of the San Diego Padres and Manny Machado #13 celebrate after Merrill’s home run against the Philadelphia Phillies during the sixth inning at Petco Park on Saturday, July 12, 2025 in San Diego, CA. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Hoeing got the final out of the fifth and got through the sixth with help from Manny Machado.
The Padres’ third baseman went to his knees to grab a hard grounder and start a double play that ended the sixth with runners on second and third. In the seventh, Machado ran up to field a dribbler and threw out Edmundo Sosa, preventing what would have been a cruel inherited runner scoring against Morgan.
“Showed why he’s an MVP-caliber player,” Shildt said.
It was Machado and Merrill who carried the Padres through much of their excellent second half in 2025 en route to a 93-win season.
“Just going into the break, I was a little concerned,” Merrill said. “… It was like, either find it and get something going the last two days or go into the break, reset and restart the second half. So it was good to see something today.”
Originally Published: July 12, 2025 at 7:28 PM PDT