SAN DIEGO - Two months ago, the San Diego Padres were largely viewed nationally as a team to count out. Rightful so, this team was ranked near the bottom in every important offensive category and had no viable starting pitching.
That has all changed now.
By adding two quality arms to the roster and the offense finally finding their game, they look unrecognizable.
"I think this year especially how we've been playing the last few weeks, months before that," said Jake Cronenworth said when asked if the race to trade deadline gave the team a boost to perform. "I think it kind of sparked something in the group and really put us in a spot to continue what we're doing right now."
They credit it to the team staying together while facing adversity and staying strong mentally while in the midst of playing 26 games in 27 days.
And if anything, they've looked better each and every day that has passed during this near month long stretch.
"Mental toughness," Fernando Tatis Jr. said. "There's no special sauce or secret. Just you got to be ready to perform either though your body's not in the best spot. You know, you feel tired, but at the end of the day it's mental toughness."
On Wednesday, they proved their more recent success was more than a product of a favorable schedule. they managed to sweep the Milwaukee Brewers, the league's best team by record, 4-3 in extra innings at Petco Park.
The Padres were down by a run late in the game and they started to warm up Yuki Matsui, who is usually not a reliever they go to for higher leverage situations, in the bullpen. That decision for Matsui quickly changed after the eighth inning.
Right-hander Dustin May, who pitched a complete game against the Padres back on June 15, was lights out and gave San Diego issues throughout seven innings, including setting down 10 batters in-a-row and posting six strikeouts on 83 pitches.
The 28-year-old came back out for the eighth and immediately gave up a four pitch walk to Gavin Sheets.
That lead-off walk not only ended May's stellar day on the mound but it gave the Padres a spark that they've been missing throughout the afternoon.
Shortly after Xander Bogaerts grounded into a 5-4-3 double play, Tatis Jr., who pinch hit for Freddy Fermin, and Luis Rengifo both drew walks. This set the table for Cronenworth against left-hander Aaron Ashby.
Cronenworth worked Ashby to a nine pitch at-bat, which led him to chasing a low and away sinker. The 98 mph pitch would ground to first baseman Jake Bauer, who had to field the ball away from the base.
The time it took for him to field the ball and to have Ashby sprint from the mound to the base gave Cronenworth enough time to hustle his way in time for an infield single and for Tatis Jr. to instinctually run around third and head home to tie the game at 2-2, forcing the game to eventually go to extras.
"Just being agressive," said Tatis Jr. on his instinct to keep running. "I mean obviously there was going to be a close play at first... Obviously the first baseman was straight looking at me and just straight throw it to home, but I saw the play was going to unfold on first base and I just went for it."
In the 11th inning, Gary Sánchez hit an RBI double to give the Brewers their lead back against Adrian Morejon. Morejon worked his way down from runners on the corners with no outs to a bases loaded with two outs situation.
The lefty ends up striking out Brice Turang to get out of the inning to avoid even more damage and most importantly, give the offense a chance to comeback again.
Cronenworth advanced to third on Manny Machado's ground out and Ty France would find his way to first after being hit by a pitch. Six pitches later, Jackson Merrill hit a sac-fly to right field to tie it, and Luis Campusano lays down the winning hit five pitches later to score Sung-Mun Song and to complete the series sweep.
"Great baseball game, exhausting from my perspective," Padres manager Craig Stammen said. "Little brain buster, but those are the games you live for. You know, that's what we signed up for and that's what makes playing this game so amazing, especially when you come out on the good end of it."
With the come from behind win, the Padres secure the season series against the Brewers.
"I feel like that's the story of our team right there for the last few years," Merrill said. "We just don't give up until the end."
Since the return from the All-Star break, the Padres have gone 17-9 and have a 6-2 record in the last eight series. They also possess the best home record (19-8) since June 8.
After a scoreless first frame, left-hander Robbie Ray surrendered a two-out home run to Sánchez, locating a four-seam fastball right down the middle. Ray relinquished second run an inning later on an RBI single to Turang, who advanced to third base after a fielding error by Merrill.
During the bottom half of the third inning, Bogaerts slammed his 10th home run of the season out to left field and cut the Brewers lead in half.
Ray, through his four innings of work, was not very sharp with his commands and often per-inning drove up his pitch count. After getting himself out of a jam with two runners on and no outs, the 34-year-old ended his day on the mound throwing 90 pitches.
He allowed two earned runs, two hits, three walks and struck out four.
The Padres aggressively turned to the bullpen, throwing out Bradgley Rodriguez, Jeremiah Estrada, Kyle Hart and Mason Miller for a combined five scoreless frames including one hit allowed and seven strikeouts.
"The way the bullpen pitched was pretty amazing," Stammen said. "We've been talking about how good they've been all year but we've been using them a lot. And so, it's not like they're the freshest guys in the world right now, but they're digging deep and making a ton of great pitches when it really matters."
The lone hit came on a lead-off single by Joey Ortiz during the fifth inning. Milwaukee's five baserunners all came on walks.
With the Phillies losing four of their last six games and the Diamondbacks dropping a three-game series to the Rockies, the Padres (65-57) have jumped ahead to the second NL Wild Card spot by a game.
"Right on time, I keep saying it that way," Tatis Jr. said. "We have come together as a ball club, as a team and that's what it's needed. And you know, obviously against a team like this, it keep boosting our confidence all the way up. So we better keep it that way."
Starting tomorrow Philadelphia will begin a four-game series against the Twins and the Diamondbacks will start a three-game series on Friday against the Braves.
The Padres have a day off on Thursday after grinding out 16 games in-a-row since returning from the All-Star break. They will return on Friday in Cleveland to take on the Guardians for a three-game series.
The expected pitching matchup for the opening game will be right-hander Michael King (7-8, 3.37 ERA) and right-hander Gavin Williams (11-6, 3.55 ERA).
