Padres miss golden chances, fall to Pirates in 12 innings

Jeff Sanders, The San Diego Union-Tribune on Aug 25, 2026

Published in Baseball

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The bounding ball that slipped through the middle of the infield in the 12th inning in a 3-2 loss on Monday night snapped the Padres’ three-game winning streak.

Yet that is not where Monday’s game was truly lost.

Well before that, the Padres popped up two bunts in innings that began with automatic runners, left the bases loaded in the 11th inning and went down without much of a fight in the 12th.

The missed opportunities cost the Padres a chance to strengthen their grip on a postseason spot as both the Diamondbacks and Phillies lost as well.

The Padres still trail the Phillies by two games in the race for the NL’s second wild-card spot and have a two-game lead on the Diamondbacks as the current final wild-card holder.

The Padres scored a run on Braxton Ashcraft’s balk in the sixth inning and tied the game in the eighth when Jake Cronenworth won an eight-pitch battle via a game-tying single.

Mason Miller stranded two runners in the ninth inning and Adrián Morejón left the automatic runner on in both the 10th and 11th innings.

But newbie Dustin Harris popped a bunt into a double play to waste the Padres’ automatic runner in the 10th. Cronenworth also popped up a bunt in the 10th, but the Padres loaded the bases via a pair of walks before Jackson Merrill struck out on three pitches outside the zone and Xander Bogaerts lined out to center.

The next inning, Nick Gonzales slipped a single up the middle off Jeremiah Estrada for the go-ahead run and Pirates reliever Yohan Ramirez struck out the side a half-inning later to finally end the game.

Making matters worse, Manny Machado is hurting.

The 34-year-old third baseman doubled over in pain and seemingly favored his right hand/wrist as he jogged up the line on his inning-ending grounder in the sixth inning.

Moments earlier, Padres manager Craig Stammen and head athletic trainer Mark Rogow visited Machado at home plate after a similar reaction after a foul ball.

But Machado stayed in the game after his sixth-inning groundout.

Machado walked on five pitches without swinging the bat after Cronenworth’s game-tying single in the eighth and did not swing the bat in his 11th-inning walk.

At the start of the game, left-hander Robbie Ray was just a step behind breakout Pirates starter Braxton Ashcraft (6 IP) as the former Cy Young winner fell two outs shy of a second straight quality start for his new team.

Ray struck out five and allowed two runs on five hits and two walks. He gave up a homer to Esmerlyn Valdez to start the sixth inning, walked Bryan Reynolds and saw that second free pass come around to score when Rafael Flores Jr. greeted right-hander Bradgley Rodriguez with a double to open a 2-0 lead for the Pirates.

A half-inning later, Freddy Fermin led off the sixth with a double off Ashcraft, moved to third on Dustin Harris’ grounder to first and looked like he’d be stranded there when Fernando Tatis Jr. struck out looking and Jake Cronenworth appeared to bounce out behind the second base bag.

But umpire Dan Merzel called a balk on the pitch, allowing Fermin to score and giving Cronenworth a do-over at the plate.

Cronenworth ultimately singled to end an adventurous seven-pitch at-bat that included an overturned strike three call on a ball under the zone. But with Machado grounding out in pain, the balk was the lone true misstep by Ashcraft over six innings.

Ashcraft struck out two and allowed one run on four hits and a walk.

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