Peralta's first Padres homer holds up as game-winner
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ARLINGTON -- David Peralta had suffered such a long home run drought -- nearly a year, including the entirety of his nascent stint with the Padres this season -- that any round-tripper would have brought him relief.
“A homer’s a homer, but ...” Peralta said after his no-doubter to center field propelled the Padres to a 6-4 victory over the Rangers on Wednesday night at Globe Life Field. “In the situation, tie game, to help the team to win, that was special -- especially to hit the first one for this team.
“I’m looking for many more, and doing more stuff to help the team win.”
After 61 at-bats without a home run since he joined the Padres in late May, Peralta mashed the winner a Statcast-projected 427 feet off Dane Dunning. Peralta’s two-run homer, along with Manny Machado’s two-run dinger in the third inning, paced a Padres offense that collected 13 hits after going listless for a couple of games.
Peralta’s first homer as a Padre was also his first homer, period, since July 8 of last season, when he was with the Dodgers. That’s a long time for any player.
“Big relief,” Peralta said. “I’m working so hard every single day to help the team, to do something, and finally, I did something good for the team.”
Even a garbage time solo shot would’ve put smiles on his and his teammates’ faces -- but this one effectively won the game.
“The thing that I appreciate about David is that it was a relief clearly for himself," Padres manager Mike Shildt said, "but I really sincerely believe it was a relief knowing that he was helping this club. ... That says a lot about him.”
Peralta, a 36-year-old veteran with 118 Major League homers, was mired in maybe the most difficult hitting slump of his career until Wednesday. He entered the night with a paltry .544 OPS. He now has eight go-ahead homers in the seventh inning or later in his career.
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At the locker next to Peralta, newly minted All-Star starter Jurickson Profar explained the team’s reaction.
“We all were very, very happy for him,” Profar said. “He always roots for us, and tonight we had a really good chance to root for him.
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In the Padres’ previous two games, they scored only one run total and had no homers or walks and only two extra-base hits. But on Wednesday, they jumped on Rangers starter Jon Gray and battled back after falling behind 4-2 in the fourth inning.
Profar went 2-for-4 with a run scored, hours after he learned he was making his first trip to the Midsummer Classic. Jake Cronenworth, Donovan Solano and Jackson Merrill also had two hits each.