Padres walk off with win over Giants after losing late lead

Kevin Acee, The San Diego Union-Tribune on Aug 1, 2026

Published in Baseball

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SAN DIEGO — The San Diego Padres continued to find ways to win at a point in the season when they almost have to do so.

Jake Cronenworth drove in the winning run with a walk-off single in the ninth inning after the Padres had lost the lead in the eighth.

Saturday’s 6-5 victory over the San Francisco Giants kept the Padres a game behind the Phillies, who hold the final National League playoff spot.

A guy playing in the major leagues for the first time in three years and out in the lineup a half-hour before first pitch almost ruined the Padres’ night.

The Padres needing late heroics could also be viewed as them having been bit by their biggest weakness and let down by their biggest strength.

Osleivis Basabe, inserted in the lineup as the Giants’ No. 9 hitter shortly before the game when Luis Arraez was scratched due to what the team said was “cramping,” drove in four runs.

Basabe, who last played in the majors for the Tampa Bay Rays in 2023 and was called up Wednesday to replace the injured Casey Schmitt, tied the game twice.

His two-run home run off Walker Buehler got the Giants to 2-2 in the third inning, and his bases-loaded double with two outs in the eighth inning off Mason Miller tied the game 4-4.

Miller had entered the game after Jeremiah Estrada loaded the bases on two singles and a walk and got the first out of the inning.

A strikeout of pinch-hitter Grant McCray got Miller one out from completing the first portion of the big lift. But Basabe drilled a 103 mph fastball left up and over the plate on a line to left field to bring in two runs. It was just the third extra-base hit Miller has allowed since joining the Padres a year ago.

After Miller’s first blown save in 29 chances this season, though, he got through the ninth and Xander Bogaerts began the bottom of the ninth with a double.

A sacrifice bunt by Freddy Fermin got him to third before pinch-hitter Gavin Sheets dribbled out to third base, forcing Bogaerts to remain there.

The Giants then put Fernando Tatis Jr. aboard with an intentional walk before Cronenworth lined the seventh pitch he saw from Dylan Smith into center field.

And while it was the bullpen that faltered near the end, left-handers Wandy Peralta and Adrian Morejón preserved their chance in the middle of the game.

Both stranded runners they inherited in scoring position — Peralta after replacing Buehler with two outs and two on in the fifth inning and Morejón after replacing Peralta with a runner on third and two outs in the sixth.

Tyler Mahle struck out Tatis and Cronenworth to start the bottom of the first, but a four-pitch walk to Manny Machado was the beginning of a rally for the Padres.

Ty France followed with a single on the ground through the left side on the seventh pitch he saw. And Jackson Merrill drove in both runners with a double to the gap in right field.

Mahle went on to hit Luis Rengifo before his 31st pitch got Bogaerts on a groundout.

Buehler, who for the first time in four starts did not allow multiple runs in the second inning, faced nine batters and allowed three runs in the third inning Saturday.

It was an abundance of walks that largely did him in when he suffered the big innings in his previous three outings. He walked just one batter in the third, but it came after Basabe’s two-run homer tied the game and a hard single and two soft singles loaded the bases.

The Padres flipped the lead back their way in the fourth when Rengifo drew a leadoff walk and, with one out, Fermin turned on a first-pitch fastball and sent it on a lofting line to the seats beyond left field.

Buehler got in quick trouble in the fifth, yielding a leadoff single to Bryce Eldridge and walking Heliot Ramos with one out.

Peralta came in and ended the inning on two pitches, retiring Rafael Devers on a lineout to left field and Willy Adames on a grounder to shortstop.

After Daniel Susac’s double to start the sixth, Peralta helped himself partway out of trouble by getting a groundout and a strikeout before turning the ball over to Morejón, who ended the inning by retiring Basabe on a grounder to shortstop.

Bogaerts lined a two-out single to right field in the bottom of the sixth to end Mahle’s night. Bogaerts got to second on a balk by reliever Keaton Winn and scored on Fermin’s single.

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