Padres clinch first postseason berth since 2006

After the bullpen gave up the lead, twice, Mitch Moreland’s double put the Padres ahead for good, clinching their first playoff spot since 2006.

In what was largely a pitching duel, the Padres eventually came away with a 7-4 victory on Sunday, taking the series from the Mariners. Dinelson Lamet was on his A-game today, tossing 6.0 innings while fanning ten batters. The 28-year-old has arguably been the most dominant pitcher for the Padres season.

Dating back to his last three outings, Lamet has struck out double-digit batters-32 strikeouts combined to only four walks. The big righty has the fifth-best ERA (2.07) in the National League and currently sits atop the leaderboard with 89 strikeouts on the year. He’ll likely get at least one more start, so let’s see if he can achieve 100 strikeouts in the shortened season.

As for the Mariners, Justin Dunn danced around four walks and fanned six over 5.2 innings with his one mistake coming in the sixth inning. With two on and two out, Wil Myers drilled a three-run shot to center, giving the Padres a 3-1 lead. And with the bullpen has been lately, all good, right?

Drew Pomeranz allowed two walks but came away unscathed in his only inning of work, striking out two batters in the process. But Emilio Pagan allowed a leadoff single to former Padres Luis Torrens, and two batters later, Dylan Moore smoked a line drive, two-run shot to left field.

Fernando Tatis Jr. has gone through a pretty rough stretch the last couple of weeks, but his line-drive single up the middle in the tenth inning put the Padres back on top. However, it would be shortlived, as J.P. Crawford’s sac fly in the bottom half of the inning off closer Trevor Rosenthal notched the game back up at four.

And as one of the more underrated acquisitions at the trade deadline, Mitch Moreland‘s playoff experience is going to be invaluable for this Padres ballclub. The former Red Sox first baseman doubled off Casey Sadler in the 11th inning, scoring Manny Machado from second base. It would be the first of three runs scored in the inning, in what ended up being a convincing extra-innings affair.

And Trevor Rosenthal came back out for the bottom of the inning, clinching the Padres’ first postseason berth since 2006 when Trevor Hoffman was on the mound for the clincher.

Let’s enjoy this, Padres fans.

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