Luis Campusano belted a two-run homer in the bottom of the 10th inning Friday night, giving the San Diego Padres a 3-2 win over the visiting New York Yankees.
With Dustin Harris at second, pinch-running for the automatic runner, Paul Blackburn (7-3) fanned Xander Bogaerts for the first out. Campusano then belted a first-pitch sinker an estimated 394 feet to the seats in left for his sixth homer of the year and his second walk-off hit of the season.
Mason Miller (5-2) pitched two innings to earn the win despite allowing Spencer Jones’ RBI single in the top of the 10th that gave New York a short-lived 2-1 edge.
The result allowed San Diego (74-67) to take a half-game lead on the Arizona Diamondbacks (74-68) for the National League’s last wild-card spot. San Diego won for just the second time in seven games.
The Yankees (80-61) dropped four games behind the Tampa Bay Rays (84-57) in the American League East and saw their lead over the Boston Red Sox (77-65) for the AL’s first wild-card spot fall to 3 1/2 games.
Both starters ended up without a decision despite pitching well. New York’s Max Fried yielded a run and four hits in 5 2/3 innings, walking one and whiffing four. San Diego’s Walker Buehler permitted three hits and a run in five innings, issuing two walks and striking out six.
San Diego took a 1-0 lead in the second inning. Ty France led off with the first of his two doubles and was sacrificed to third by Jackson Merrill. After Austin Hays popped up for the second out, Bogaerts looped a single to center that drove in France.
Buehler’s only mistake tied the game with two outs in the third. Ben Rice cracked his 36th homer of the year, launching a hanging slider an estimated 444 feet over the center field wall.
The Padres could have earned their 10th walk-off of the year in the ninth after France doubled with one out. However, Merrill’s deep fly ball to left was chased down by Cody Bellinger, and after a passed ball moved the runner to third, David Bednar struck out Hays to force extra innings.