Padres make walk-off HR history with another 9th-inning blast

SAN DIEGO -- The moment he hit it, Jake Cronenworth knew it was gone. The next moment, he wasn’t so sure. As the baseball veered through the night toward the right-field foul pole, a moment of doubt crept in. Standing in front of the lefty batter’s box, Cronenworth leaned to one side. A little body English couldn’t hurt.

Fair ball. Home run. Walk-off history in San Diego.

Cronenworth’s ninth-inning blast sent the Padres to a series-opening 7-6 victory over Milwaukee on Thursday night at Petco Park. It came after they had closed their previous homestand by winning consecutive games against Oakland with home runs from Kyle Higashioka and Jackson Merrill.

In the process, the Padres became the first team in baseball history to hit a walk-off home run in the ninth inning in three consecutive home games, according to STATS. They became the first team since the 2019 Dodgers to hit walk-off home runs in any inning in three straight home games.

“The best part,” said Cronenworth, “is coming home, everybody’s there, your teammates are waiting for you, celebrating.”

These days, the Padres are making a habit of it.

“It shows we’re still in the game, no matter what,” said Fernando Tatis Jr., who went 4-for-5 with a monster 446-foot home run of his own, the longest by a Padre this season, according to Statcast.

Cronenworth came to the plate with two outs after the Padres had blown a two-run lead in the top of the inning. He worked a ferocious seven-pitch at-bat against righty Joel Payamps. After fouling off two straight fastballs, Payamps hung a slider, and Cronenworth turned on it.

“I thought it was a homer to begin with,” he said. “Then I saw it hooking and kind of panicked for a second. Then I realized it was going to stay fair.”

In that moment, the typically even-keeled Cronenworth unleashed a roar and a furious bat flip. He thumped his chest twice in the direction of the home dugout while he hopped up the first-base line. Petco Park erupted, the type of roar only associated with arguably the most exciting play in the entire sport.

Only two teams -- the Mets and the Orioles -- even have three walk-off home runs all season. The Padres have three of them in their last three games at Petco Park.

“It feels good to be winning at home, for sure,” said third baseman Manny Machado. “We’re feeding off the energy of the fans. Just keep battling. Any one of us could win the game any given day. … We know, at the end of the day, we get in that situation, anyone that’s up at the plate can send us home.”

Machado’s home run opened the scoring for the Padres, who capitalized on a blunder from the Brewers defense. With one out in the first, Cronenworth hit what appeared to be a surefire double-play ball. But second baseman Brice Turang booted it and would settle for a mere forceout. Costly, indeed.

Machado and Merrill would follow with back-to-back home runs. First, Machado lofted a three-run blast to the opposite field, then Merrill added a solo shot, his sixth home run in the past eight games. The only center fielder with six home runs in an eight game span at a younger age than Merrill? Willie Mays in 1951. (Frank Robinson also accomplished the feat but played left field for two of those games.)

With the Padres clinging to a one-run lead in the sixth, Tatis launched his moonshot to the far reaches of the second deck in left field, where few hitters ever go.

“That one felt good,” said Tatis, who is hitting .370 with five homers this month. “It definitely got me swagging.”

The Brewers erased a two-run deficit in the ninth when the Padres called for Jeremiah Estrada to cover his third game in as many days -- the first two of which came across the country in Philadelphia. Estrada gave the Padres what he had -- and at least managed to keep the game tied, striking out the final two hitters to leave Rhys Hoskins stranded after his game-tying double.

That set the stage for a bit of walk-off history. And -- as Merrill wanted to make abundantly clear -- the most important part of that walk-off home run streak:

“We won three extra games,” said Merrill. “Credit to Higgy, Croney, myself, I guess. But we won three extra games, and that's the main goal.”