SAN DIEGO — The Padres continued to force the action and continued to win.
Timely hits remain elusive at times, but wins are more frequent because they are playing a kind of baseball that wins.
For going on a month, stuck in an unexpected reality where their highly paid offense was not able to consistently capitalize with big hits or in big moments, the Padres have been doing more of the little things.
They really leaned into doing what it takes over the weekend, beating the Rays the past two days to win the series against the team with MLB's best record.
Another big inning in which they didn't have to hit the ball far for it to go a long way got them on their way to a 5-4 victory on Sunday.
A throw by Fernando Tatis Jr. helped preserve the Padres' fourth win in the six-game homestand.
The Padres had to hold on at the end, as the Rays scored twice in the eighth inning by finding holes all over the field with five singles.
Randy Arozarena's single up the middle off second baseman Rougned Odor's glove began the inning against Nick Martinez, who followed with a strikeout of Isaac Paredes. Josh Lowe moved Arozarena to third with a single grounded into center field and stole second base. Manuel Margot's single scored Arozarena and moved Lowe to third, and a blooped single to right field by pinch-hitter Harold Ramirez scored Lowe and moved Margot to second.
Christian Bethancourt then grounded a single under the dive of first baseman Jake Cronenworth. As Margot rounded third base, Tatis scooped up the ball and fired a throw that reached catcher Austin Nola on one hop just in time for Nola to tag out Margot.
The Rays challenged both the call and that Nola had obstructed Margot. After a tense couple minutes, crew chief Alan Porter announced the out call stood to thunderous applause from the 44,404 who made up the fourth-largest crowd at Petco Park this season.
It was Tatis' National League-leading seventh outfield assist.
Josh Hader retired the Rays in order for his second save in two nights.
Tatis had also been in the middle of the action as the Padres' took the lead early Sunday.
The Padres scored both of their runs in Saturday's 2-0 victory on a pair of bunt singles, a swinging bunt single and a sacrifice fly in the fifth inning.
They scored three times in Sunday's third inning in an even more thrillingly underwhelming manner–a double, a single, a dribbler in front of the plate that led to two errors on one play by the same player and a sacrifice fly.
Trent Grisham's one-out double was followed by the Padres getting a hit with a runner in scoring position that didn't score the runner, as Grisham was compelled to freeze momentarily to make sure Tatis' line drive through the left side was not caught.
Juan Soto came to the plate with runners at first and third and dribbled a ball about five feet in front of the plate that Bethancourt, the Rays catcher, decided to throw to second base to try to get Tatis. It appeared Tatis would have beat the throw even if shortstop Wander Franco had not whiffed on it.
The ball hit off Tatis foot and caromed into shallow left field, sending Grisham home and Tatis to third, where he noticed Franco was still somewhat leisurely jogging to get the ball and took off for home. Franco's throw sailed wide of the plate, and Tatis scored without a slide to put the Padres up 2-1 as Soto raced to third.
Manny Machado's sacrifice fly scored Soto to make it 3-1.
The Rays, who scored on three consecutive one-out singles in the second inning, added a run in the fourth on two infield singles, a walk and a bases-loaded sacrifice fly.
The Padres pushed the lead back to two runs when Cronenworth and Odor led off the inning with doubles.
They extended the lead to three runs when Grisham led off the fifth inning with a walk, stole second during Tatis' strikeout, moved to third on Soto's groundout and scored on a single by Machado.
While the timely hits followed, Sunday followed something of a pattern.
It was the fifth time in their past 11 victories that at least one of the Padres' first three runs scored with help from a sacrifice hit or sacrifice fly.
Joe Musgrove (5-2, 4.22) departed with a 5-2 lead after six innings and earned the victory. Steven Wilson pitched a scoreless seventh. Hader's save was his 18th.
