Yankees 5, Padres 1, and the Padres never really had a chance after the second inning.
Carlos Rodón took care of the rest. Working through a lineup with Machado, Tatis, and Bogaerts at the top, Rodón went five innings, allowed a single run, and struck out seven -- tying his season high -- while the offense did its damage early and let the bullpen close it out at Petco Park on Saturday.
The Second Inning Did All the Damage
The Yankees decided this one before most of the crowd finished their first beer.
Spencer Jones opened the scoring with a sharp line-drive double to right off Robbie Ray, plating Ben Rice. Nothing dramatic yet, just a 1-0 lead in a building where Jones grew up rooting for the home team (he's a San Diego kid, La Costa Canyon High, up the coast in Carlsbad).
Then it got messy for Ray. Paul Goldschmidt walked with the bases loaded to force in a second run. Cody Bellinger followed with a two-run single that scored both José Caballero and Austin Wells and stood as the single biggest swing of the game (a 12.6% jump in win probability, for those counting). Four runs, one inning, and Ray was already cooked.
He wouldn't survive the third. Rice reached again, and George Lombard Jr.'s sacrifice fly brought him home to make it 5-0. Ray's final line: 2.1 innings, five runs, four walks, one strikeout. He was chasing his 100th career win. He's still chasing it (this was try number three, and he's sitting on 99 for his career).
Rodón Was the Story Everyone Should've Expected
Give Bellinger and Jones their moment, but the star of this game was Rodón.
Five innings, two hits, one run, three walks, seven strikeouts -- tying his own season high, and doing it with a five-run cushion that let him work aggressively in the zone all afternoon. The only blemish was a solo shot from Manny Machado in the fourth, his 25th of the season, which accounted for the entirety of the Padres' offense against him.
Rodón picked up the win, his fifth of the year against three losses. Not a dominant shutdown outing on paper, but exactly the kind of start a rotation needs in September.
Machado's homer traveled to left-center and didn't threaten the outcome for a second. Down 5-0 in the fourth, the Padres needed a rally, not a solo shot, and Rodón made sure it stayed a solo shot.
The Pen Didn't Blink
Four relievers, four scoreless innings, one hit allowed. Michael Fulmer opened the relay with two-thirds of an inning of zeros, and Brent Headrick, John Schreiber, and Tim Hill combined to close it out without incident (Hill gave up a single to Austin Hays in the ninth, and that was the extent of the drama). Nobody sweated. That's the whole point of a five-run lead.
Headrick's 1.1 hitless innings picked up his 25th hold of the year. Not the kind of stat line that gets a guy a commercial, but the kind that keeps a winning season alive down the stretch.
And that's what this one was about. The Yankees are 81-61, four games back of the Rays in the East but sitting comfortably atop the American League's wild-card race, and this win puts them one victory away from a 34th consecutive winning season. Thirty-four. Not a typo.
The loss stings more on the other side. The Padres dropped to 74-68 and now sit half a game back of a National League wild-card spot, with a Sunday finale they can't afford to also drop.
The series sits even at a game apiece. Go win the rubber match tomorrow.
Jimmy writes the Bronx Pinstripes game recap after every Yankees game. Beat-reporter pacing, fan's heartbeat. He calls opposing players by last name and has no patience for dead-air innings.
