Padres do just enough to edge Phillies in series

Jeff Sanders, The San Diego Union-Tribune on Jul 12, 2025

Published in Baseball

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SAN DIEGO — It’s been nearly a week since Jackson Merrill logged a hit.

He’s still finding ways to help win games.

Three days ago, that meant robbing a home run in center field. In a 4-2 win over the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday night, that meant a sacrifice bunt that stoked the San Diego Padres’ only rally off Phillies left-hander Ranger Suarez.

Suarez threw wildly on Merrill’s sacrifice and the Padres pounced for three runs, rookie Ryan Bergert struck out seven in 42/3 innings in his return from the injured list and baseball’s second-best bullpen held in front of a sellout crowd of 43,856 at Petco Park for a consecutive win for the first time since June 24-25.

Manny Machado’s eighth-inning homer provided some breathing room for All-Star closer Robert Suarez, who retired the side in order in the ninth for his MLB-leading 28th save.

Jeremiah Estrada and Adrian Morejón both followed with scoreless frames and Jason Adam left the bases loaded in the eighth inning of a 3-2 game.

Fresh off his addition to the All-Star Game, Morejón’s appearance extended his scoreless innings streak to a career-high 151/3 innings.

Bergert’s seven strikeouts were one shy of a career high. He allowed both home runs on solo shots from Nick Castellanos and Kyle Schwarber, surrendered two total hits and walked two over 2/3 innings.

Yuki Matsui walked Schwarber to load the bases after replacing Bergert in the fifth inning, but he fetched an inning-ending grounder from Bryce Harper to maintain a 3-2 lead.

Bergert essentially picked up where he left off after taking a comebacker off his forearm on June 24. Imaging did not reveal any breaks, so Bergert missed just over two weeks with a forearm contusion, made a rehab start on Sunday for Triple-A El Paso and threw 52 of his 82 pitches for strikes in his return.

Through his first 10 appearances in the majors — the last six as starts as a stopgap option while the team contended with Yu Darvish’s balky elbow and Michael King’s troublesome nerve — Bergert is sporting a 2.84 ERA.

Castellanos’ home run gave the Phillies a 1-0 lead in the second inning. Schwarber’s blast the next inning answered the Padres’ three-run second.

Bergert is ranked No. 21 among Padres prospects by MLB.com.

“He did a great job of controlling strikes,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said of Bergert’s appearances before his stay on the injured list. “He did a great job of not making it bigger than it is. He made a lot of quality pitches consistently.”

A one-inning hiccup was enough to get on top of Suarez early.

Xander Bogaerts began a three-hit day with a leadoff single.

Because Merrill doesn’t have a hit since July 5, he looked to bunt Bogaerts to second. But Suarez threw wildly to first, putting runners on the corners.

Jose Iglesias followed with a run-scoring double, Elias Díaz plated a run with a groundout and Fernando Tatis Jr. singled to right-center to open up a 3-1 lead.

The Padres were smart to strike when they did.

Suarez allowed just three more hits before his exit with two outs in the seventh inning — two more singles from Bogaerts and Tatis’ broken-bat, two-out singles to put runners on the corners and chase the Phillies’ left-hander from the game after 96 pitches.

Phillies manager Thomson replaced Suarez with another left-hander, Tanner Banks, and Luis Arraez grounded out to end the inning.

Suarez finished with five strikeouts, six hits and allowed and three walks.