*Photo from ESPN*
Series tied 1-1
Down 6-2 entering the bottom of the 6th inning, the San Diego Padres did what they do best. Produce runs very quickly. Fernando Tatis Jr hit two homers, as did Wil Myers, and the Padres beat the St.Louis Cardinals 11-9 to force a do or die game 3. The Padres had looked dead in the water all series, and entering the 6th inning, they hadn't given a reason to feel any differently. Then, the offense heated up.
The scoring started in the first inning, when Yadier Molina hit an RBI single to make it 1-0 Cardinals. In the second inning, Harrison Bader hit an RBI single and Kolten Wong hit a 3 run homer to make it 4-0 Cardinals. It stayed that way until the 4th inning, when Eric Hosmer scored on a fielders choice and Mitch Moreland scored on a bases loaded walk, making it a 4-2 game. In the 6th, the Cardinals tacked on two runs to make it a 6-2 lead. In the bottom of the 6th, Tatis Jr hit a 3 run homer to make it a one run deficit, then Manny Machado hit a solo homer to tie it up at 6. In the 7th, Myers hit a solo homer, and Tatis hit a two run homer to make it 9-7 Padres. Both teams tacked on runs further to make the score 11-9, which held.
Tatis said of his first homer of the game that "I feel like we needed that big swing for the entire team to get us going, we were missing a lot with runners in scoring position. I feel like whoever did it first, we were going to feed off that. Thank God I did it first, but I'm just happy the team clicked and we won the game."
Tatis said of his second homer that "We're in the playoffs. The game was not done, the job was not done until we get those 27 outs, we cannot back down, we cannot settle, there was a lot of game left. I was wanting to keep motivating my teammates, just to let them know, to keep on. They are a team that they're going to answer back, so we've got to keep doing the work."
Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright held his head high after the loss, even as he was the starting pitcher. Wainwright said that "We played a great lineup, a great team and they came at us over and over and over again and we never backed down, we answered back almost every time. Every time we put them in a hole they came right back."
The series continues on Friday, with a do or die game 3 starting at 7:08 Eastern Time. The Cardinals are sending ace Jack Flaherty to the mound for the start, while the Padres send reliever Craig Stammen to the mound, likely serving as an opener.
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