The San Diego Padres got their first walk off of the year in a 12-inning, back-and-forth win over the Colorado Rockies, capped by Xander Bogaerts' grand slam into left field.
San Diego entered the tenth inning with Jeremiah Estrada on the mound and gave up a run, then tied it in the bottom of the tenth to keep the game going. The Rockies scored again in the 11th, but Luis Campusano answered with a double that brought in the tying run and sent it to a 12th inning that finally broke open.
In the 12th, Fernando Tatis Jr. laid down a sacrifice bunt to move the runner to third, and Colorado intentionally walked Jackson Merrill and Manny Machado to load the bases. Bogaerts made the decision hurt immediately, sending an 89.6 mile per hour sinker over the left-field fence for the first walk-off grand slam this year for San Diego.
Read Also: Xander Bogaerts’ walk-off grand slam lifts Padres past Rockies 7-3
The finish forced the Padres to use five relievers, while Randy Vásquez gave them 5 2/3 innings of one-run ball to keep them within reach. San Diego had only five hits through the first nine innings, which made the late surge stand out even more.
Read Also: Rockies Vs Padres: Surging NL West rivals meet again in San Diego
The win fits a broader pattern the club has been trying to find since the season opened: better offense, more pressure on the other side and fewer wasted chances. After struggling to score more than one run despite plenty of opportunities in earlier games, this was the kind of finish that made one person close to the team say the Padres are starting to look like themselves once again. For a club that had looked stuck at the plate, that matters now more than later.
