Batters Put On Show In Mexico City As Padres Outlast Giants In 16-11 Slugfest

By Editor, Times of San Diego

April 30, 2023

Send the Padres to Mexico City and those bats get well. And how.

The Padres – sporting their City Connect uniforms – and the Giants engaged in a good old-fashioned slugfest Saturday, with the Friars coming out on top 16-11 in the first regular-season MLB game played in the Mexican capitol.

Manny Machado led the way with two home runs, joining four other Padres who went deep. The Giants added five homers of their own to the mix.

“It was a good offensive day for all of us,” Machado told Bally Sports San Diego. “I think we all all had great quality at-bats. We just gotta keep riding that.”

Of course, if Colorado’s Coors Field is known for offense, due to its elevation, 5,279 feet, imagine the how the hitters salivated at the thought of Mexico City, altitude, 7,349 feet.

The homer barrage started for the Padres in the third with the team up 3-2. Nelson Cruz sent a solo shot to center field, then after a Jake Cronenworth double and an Austin Nola single, they were up 5-2.

The Giants, though, surged back in the fourth, as six men crossed the plate, knocking out starter Joe Musgrove. The big blows came from Mitch Haniger, with a three-run homer, and Thairo Estrada, with a bases-clearing double.

But it was virtually all Padres after the top of the fourth. Juan Soto and Xander Bogaerts answered with back-to-back solo homers to pull the Friars closer at 8-7 in the bottom of the frame. They took the lead back in the fifth on a two-out, two-run homer by Fernando Tatis Jr.

They also gave the sell-out crowd at Estadio Alfredo Harp Helú another back-to-back display. Machado followed Tatis’ shot with his first of the game, as the Padre lead grew to 10-8.

Though the Giants briefly went ahead on Blake Sobol and David Villar homers in the seventh, the Padres snagged the lead back for good in the bottom of the inning, thanks to Tatis, who doubled. Machado brought him home when he slammed his second homer of the day for a 12-11 lead.

The Friars sealed the win with a four-run eighth, on a two-run double by Trent Grisham and a single by Cruz –he went 5-for-6 on the day – that sent Grisham and Machado home.

Machado couldn’t help pointing to the atmosphere at the ballpark.

“Every time we get a hit or an out, whatever it was, they were cheering the whole time,” the Padre third baseman said. “So it was just fun to play in front of them.”

While the batters lived it up, the pitching staffs felt the strain, as the Padres and the Giants each used six pitchers. Tom Cosgrove, in his Major League debut, recorded the win, and Nick Martinez, the save, after he closed out his two innings of work by striking out the side in the top of the ninth.

Yu Darvish and Alex Cobb will try to restore order when they take the mound Sunday.

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