Merrill's huge 2-HR game sends Padres to 6th straight series win

PITTSBURGH -- Jackson Merrill is making a habit of this. The 2024 San Diego Padres are making a habit of this.

Down but not out, the Padres needed their remarkable rookie in the ninth inning on Wednesday night. Sure enough, Merrill did what he’s done all season: He delivered a big hit in a big spot.

Merrill’s second home run of the night was a game-tying, no-doubter in the top of the ninth, as the Padres rallied for a wild 9-8 victory over the Pirates in 10 innings at PNC Park. It moved San Diego to three games out of first place in the NL West after the Dodgers' loss to the Phillies, as close as the Padres have been to the division lead since April 25.

It also marked the third time this season that Merrill has hit a game-tying or walk-off homer in the ninth -- the most in the Majors.

“He embraces it,” said Padres manager Mike Shildt. “He loves it, thrives on it. … He’s got that ‘it’ factor.”

Merrill’s ninth-inning homer was only the beginning of the drama. Robert Suarez and Tanner Scott combined to escape a bases-loaded mess in the bottom of the ninth inning, before the Padres rallied for three runs in the top of the 10th.

The Pirates clawed two runs back, but Adrian Morejon stranded the tying run on third base and the winning run at second for his first career save. The Padres -- the very same Padres who started the 2023 season 0-12 in extra innings -- improved to 5-1 in extras this year. They’ve won six consecutive series since the All-Star break.

“With that kind of crazy game -- the back-and-forth and the battle that we showed -- it just goes to show that we’re all on the same page,” Morejon said through team interpreter Danny Sanchez. “We’re all competing. We’re all battling. Really excited for that win.”

The Padres have had their share of late-inning rallies already this season, but this ranked among the wildest. The game seesawed through the middle innings, and the Pirates clung to a one-run lead after eight.

That set the stage for Merrill, who had launched a 442-foot moonshot in the second inning that dotted the “I” in Pirates in the center-field shrubbery. He came to the plate with one out against David Bednar. The former Padre threw a belt-high, first-pitch fastball. Mistake.

“I was just sitting on a heater,” Merrill said. “If he threw a splitter or a curveball, I was whiffing. I was selling out to the heater right there. Not trying to hit a homer. But trying to get the head out and do something, do a little bit of damage.”

Damage done. With the homer, Merrill became the sixth player in the expansion era (since 1961) to hit three game-tying or go-ahead home runs in the ninth or later in a single season, age 21 or younger. Francisco Alvarez had most recently done so for the Mets last year.

“I wasn't trying to hit a homer in that situation,” Merrill said. “But at least start something and do something to the point where they start thinking: 'Oh, they're not leaving.'”

In the bottom of the ninth, the Pirates loaded the bases with one out, when Suarez was charged with ball one to Ji Hwan Bae for a pitch-clock violation. That sparked a kerfuffle.

Manny Machado argued vehemently (and correctly, as it was later ruled) that the clock hadn’t reset and that Bae hadn’t engaged with Suarez at the correct time in the first place. Amid the fray, Shildt emerged to argue, then told his players to calm down. His bench was empty, after all.

“I want to make sure with all caution that nobody says anything,” Shildt said. “We might see [pitcher] Matt Waldron in the outfield. Don’t really want that.”

Home-plate umpire Andy Fletcher ruled that the manager instructing his team to calm down counted as a mound visit, Shildt said. That was the second visit of the inning, meaning Suarez would need to be removed -- but only after the at-bat, which was deemed to have started already.

Of course, the mound-visit confusion was only revealed by Shildt himself after the game. In the moment, none of this was apparent. Sure, it seemed a bit odd Shildt would lift his closer after six pitches. But the Padres have a lock-down bullpen with all sorts of options, post-Trade Deadline. Calling for the lefty Tanner Scott to face the lefty Oneil Cruz didn’t seem too far-fetched.

“The good news is, [Scott] gets hot quick,” Shildt said.

Scott got Cruz to bounce harmlessly to first. After the Padres’ three-run 10th, however, he struggled, walking the first three hitters he faced. Morejon would emerge to put out that fire. The Padres had earned yet another dramatic come-from-behind victory.

“Just a great team win,” Shildt said. “And obviously, Jackson was huge.”