Padres head into break with series win against Blue Jays

Kevin Acee, The San Diego Union-Tribune on Jul 12, 2026

Published in Baseball

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SAN DIEGO — The San Diego Padres, hurt and tired and having not played all that well lately, crawled to the All-Star break.

Their final step was achieved by running their way to a victory.

Two runs in the bottom of the eighth inning — aided by Xander Bogaerts’ steal of second base and Jase Bowen’s steal of third — lifted them to a 5-4 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday that completed a series win and got them to three days off.

“It is definitely needed,” Fernando Tatis Jr. said.

Sunday was the end of what is traditionally referred to as the “first half” of the season — even though the Padres have played 96 of their 162 games — and finished off a run of 17 games in 17 days.

It was not a great last 2 1/2 weeks.

Their longest uninterrupted run of games this season began with a victory over the Dodgers on June 26 that was followed by eight consecutive losses before they closed with a victory in Los Angeles on Sunday, a split of a four-game series against the Diamondbacks at the start of the week and the two victories in three games against the Blue Jays.

“After the stretch we had these last few weeks,” Jake Cronenworth said, “to come home and have a winning homestand is huge.”

With a .500 record, they can consider their three days off a reset.

“It’s tough, you know, playing every day and playing the way that we have been playing,” Tatis said. “… Takes a big toll on your bodies. But the break came just in time.”

When they return to play Friday in Kansas City, the Padres will be four games back in the race for the National League’s final wild-card spot.

“Ending on a high note is good for sure,” Manny Machado said. “But just get ready to enjoy this break and then come back with the game plan and ready to rock and roll.”

They could look forward with more zeal because they came back to win the past two days.

“Just a good taste in our mouth we can think about for the next four days,” manager Craig Stammern said.

They came back twice Sunday.

Nathan Lukes, the game’s second batter, gave the Blue Jays a 1-0 lead with a home run off Germán Márquez.

The first four batters reaching base in the bottom of the second led to a three-run inning for the Padres.

Singles by Machado and Ty France around a walk by Gavin Sheets loaded the bases, and Cronenworth’s single tied the game 1-1.

Three of the next four batters made outs, and the Padres scored twice more — on Sung-Mun Song’s bases-loaded walk and a bases-loaded balk.

That lead stood through Márquez completing four innings, an inning apiece by Ron Marinaccio and Kyle Hart and the first of Adrian Morejón’s two innings.

The Blue Jays took a 4-3 lead against Morejón in the eighth, who was tasked with getting six outs.

Daulton Varsho ended up scoring after he reached on a fielder’s choice following Kazuma Okamoto’s leadoff single, went to second on Brandon Valenzuela’s groundout and scored on a single lined to center by Jonatan Clase.

Like Stammen, Blue Jays manager John Schneider took advantage of the upcoming day off to ride the back end of his bullpen, which is statistically essentially on par with the Padres’ bullpen.

After starter Kevin Gausman completed six innings, Tyler Rogers worked a scoreless seventh.

The fateful eighth inning began with Bogaerts hitting the sixth pitch he saw from Jeff Hoffman up the middle for a single. Bogaerts stole second base on Hoffman’s third pitch to Machado, and five pitches later Machado lined a single to center field that tied the game.

“ I didn’t have to hit it out of the ballpark, so not trying to do too much,” Machado said. “Just get a pitch, stay short, and kind of get him over. … He threw me a 3-2 fastball there, and I was able to just stay short and go up the middle.”

Sheets followed by hitting the first pitch he saw softly up the middle, where it was fielded on the grass by shortstop Andrés Giménez. Second baseman Ernie Clement had been playing deep and toward first base, so Giménez’s only play was to get Sheets at first as Machado advanced safely to second.

Stammen then replaced Machado with the speedy Bowen, who was at third base before Hoffman’s second pitch to France reached catcher Alejandro Kirk.

“Just trying to be aggressive,” Bowen said. “All I’ve got to do is get to third, because Ty has been swinging an unbelievable bat.”

France, who was 5 for 9 with three RBIs in the series against one of his former team, wasted no time. He sent the next pitch to deep right-center field to get Bowen home.

Mason Miller retired the Blue Jays in order in the ninth for his NL-leading 25th save.

“That’s the team baseball we’ve been looking for,” France said. “I feel like we’ve done a good job of that, and it’s a really good time to do it. We feel confident going into the break. Now we can rest, recover, reset, and hit the ground running when we get to Kansas City.”

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