Rookie Jackson Merrill homers in 9th off Miller to lift the Padres to a 5-4 win against the A’s
SAN DIEGO — Rookie Jackson Merrill’s second homer of the game was a walk-off shot off Mason Miller with one out in the ninth and the San Diego Padres beat the Oakland A’s 5-4 Wednesday as Fernando Tatis Jr.’s career-high 17-game hitting streak ended.
Merrill drove the first pitch he saw from Miller (1-1) down the right field line, his fifth and flipped his bat. He was met at home by a wild celebration.
Donovan Solano also hit two home runs, including a tying shot in the eighth. Tatis, who went 0 for 3, was aboard with a walk. Tatis’ streak had been the longest active streak in the majors.
A’s manager Mark Kotsay was ejected in the top of the ninth by home plate umpire Tom Hanahan. The A’s struck out 18 times, including a season-high 12 by Padres starter Michael King.
The A’s rallied for three runs in the sixth to take the lead and pushed it to 4-2 in the eighth on Zack Gelof’s double to left-center.
The Padres came back to tie it at 4 in the bottom of the eighth on Solano’s two-run homer to center off Lucas Erceg.
The A’s put on a small-ball clinic in the sixth to rally from a 2-0 deficit to take a 3-2 lead.
The A’s opened the sixth with five straight singles and then a walk. King allowed consecutive singles and was relieved by Wandy Peralta. Tyler Soderstrom and Shea Langeliers hit RBI singles.
Seth Brown, a left-handed hitter, laid down a perfect bunt to the third base side that eluded Peralta and, with third baseman Abraham Toro covering the bag as Soderstrom advanced from second, rolled all the way to the dirt, where shortstop Ha-Seong Kim fielded it and threw home too late to get Soderstrom.
Daz Cameron walked to load the bases before rookie Stephen Kolek came on and got two strikeouts and left fielder Jose Azocar made a nice sliding catch of Toro’s fly ball.
The Padres took a 2-0 lead on home runs by Solano in the second and Merrill in the fifth, both off left-hander Hogan Harris.
Harris allowed two runs and four hits in five innings, struck out five and walked one.
Padres: LF Jurickson Profar, who is second in the major leagues in batting average and third in on-base percentage, was out of the lineup with patellar tendinitis in his left knee. He said he’s been dealing with the issue for years, and that it’s been bad for a month. He fell down while swinging at a pitch in the eighth inning in Tuesday night’s 4-3 win against Oakland and was removed from the game.
Athletics: RHP Luis Medina (0-1, 5.23 ERA) and Twins RHP Joe Ryan (4-5, 3.30) are scheduled to start Thursday night in the opener of a four-game series at Minnesota.
Padres: RHP Matt Waldron (4-5, 3.76) is scheduled to start Friday night in the opener of a three-game series at the New York
