The Padres returned to San Diego having won four straight games to finish their most successful long road trip in more than two decades.
They played for a bit Monday like they didn’t know where they were before making themselves at home (or maybe it was making themselves on the road) and working their way even before winning 3-2 on José Azocar’s walk-off single in the 10th inning.
An offense that scored 10 runs on a season-high 17 hits Sunday in San Francisco didn’t get a hit until the fourth inning. The Padres could hardly hit a ball hard for much of the game, then got a couple doubles and played small ball to tie the game with one run in the fifth and one in the seventh.
Padres starter Nick Martinez allowed just two runs but departed after five innings having thrown 106 pitches. He threw 31 of those in the second inning when he walked a batter, allowed a single and yielded Tyrone Taylor’s two-out, two-RBI double.
Nabil Crismatt, Tim Hill, Robert Suarez, Taylor Rogers and Luis Garcia followed Martinez with a scoreless inning apiece. Garcia escaped a bases-loaded jam by starting a home-to-first double play by Andrew McCutchen and then retiring Rowdy Tellez on a ground out.
The Padres walked twice but didn’t score in the first inning. Nor did they score after Jurickson Profar got their first hit off Adrian Houser leading off the fourth. Manny Machado left the bases loaded with a fly out to end the seventh and left runners at the corners with a strikeout to end the ninth.
Machado began the 10th inning on second base and moved to third on Profar’s grounder to the right side. Eric Hosmer and Wil Myers were intentionally walked to bring up Ha-seong Kim with the bases loaded. Kim hit a soft line out to shortstop before Azocar flared a single into center field.
A single by Luke Voit, double by Trent Grisham and RBI groundout by Jorge Alfaro, all with one out, got the Padres to 2-1 in the fifth inning.
Myers’ leadoff double in the seventh, off reliever Brad Boxberger, led to the tying run when he moved to third on a grounder to the right side by Robinson Cano and scored on Grisham’s bunt single that stayed just on the grass and died about halfway up the first base line.
The Padres entered Monday’s game with the third-best record in the major leagues at 27-14. After going 7-2 on their just-completed trek through Atlanta, Philadelphia and San Francisco (their best road trip of at least eight games since 2001), their 17-7 road record is the best in the majors.
They are averaging the second-most runs per game (5.3) on the road. Their .242 batting average away from Petco Park ranks 11th, and their .691 road OPS is 13th. At home, they entered Monday averaging 3.4 runs a game (24th) and were batting .218 (27th) with a .656 OPS (24th).
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