Jackson Merrill’s two-run double capped a five-run rally in the bottom of the ninth Wednesday night as the San Diego Padres stretched their winning streak to seven games with a wild 7-6 win over the visiting Seattle Mariners.
Merrill lined a 2-2 fastball from reliever Jose Ferrer down the left field line, hitting the chalk and rolling into the corner. Luis Campusano scored the tying run and Ramon Laureano plated the winning run when Randy Arozarena wasn’t able to make a throw home as the ball slipped out of his hand.
The hit made a winner of Alek Jacob (1-0), who tossed two scoreless innings in his first MLB outing of the year after being called up earlier in the day from Triple-A El Paso. Closer Andres Munoz (2-2) was charged with all five runs in the ninth and absorbed the loss.
Munoz was one out from ending the game when he got pinch-hitter Fernando Tatis Jr. to line into a sacrifice fly to right. But Campusano and Laureano followed with consecutive RBI singles to set the stage for Merrill’s game-winner.
Wasted in defeat for Seattle were Luke Raley’s four-hit game, including a two-run homer in the fifth that gave it a 6-0 lead, and a good game by starter Emerson Hancock. He retired the first 11 men he faced and left after six innings with a 6-2 cushion, allowing four hits and two runs with a walk and six strikeouts.
The Mariners initiated scoring in the second when Dominic Canzone rifled a two-run double off the right field wall. They doubled the lead in the fourth when Brendan Donovan punched a two-run single to right against Randy Vasquez.
After allowing only two runs in his first three starts, Vasquez lasted just four innings in this one, permitting five hits and four runs with four walks and six strikeouts. But he was taken off the hook by the ninth-inning rally.
Xander Bogaerts slugged a two-run homer for San Diego in the sixth, his third of the year and the 200th of his career.
