Ethan Salas finishes Padres’ comeback as San Diego outlasts Marlins 7-6 in 10 innings

Miami’s fast start, San Diego’s immediate problem

For two innings, the Marlins looked like the club with the clearer plan. They put Casey Mize under pressure early, cashed in the second when Joe Mack brought home Jakob Marsee on a fielder’s choice, then pushed the lead to 3-0 on Otto Lopez’s two-run homer to left-center. When Agustín Ramírez doubled home Marsee in the third and Esteury Ruiz followed with a run-scoring single, Miami had built a 5-1 lead and forced San Diego into a chase almost before the game had settled.

That burst did not come from nowhere. Miami finished with 10 hits, drew nine walks, stole five bases and saw 203 pitches. Marsee was the table-setter all night, going 3-for-4 with two runs and a walk, while Lopez paired his homer with two walks. The Marlins kept finding base runners, and against Mize they found them quickly: five runs, five walks and 74 pitches in only three innings is the kind of starter line that usually leaves a home team buried.

The third inning that changed the shape of it

Instead, San Diego turned one messy inning into its way back. Samad Taylor had already clipped the deficit with a solo homer in the second, and the Padres kept pressing in the third. Jake Cronenworth drew a bases-loaded walk to force in Manny Machado, a balk brought Ty France home and moved the runners up, and Taylor’s sacrifice fly scored Luis Campusano. A 5-1 game became 5-4 without the Padres needing a barrage of extra-base hits.

That sequence mattered because it changed the emotional math of the night, even if the only evidence here is on the scoreboard. Miami’s early advantage had room to breathe; after the Padres’ third inning, it was suddenly one swing from disappearing. Fernando Tatis Jr. supplied that swing in the fourth, driving a 410-foot homer to center to tie it 5-5. From there, the game belonged to whichever side could finally turn traffic into separation.

A lead, a reply, and the last swing

San Diego’s first full comeback arrived in the sixth. Dustin Harris scored on France’s double to right, and the Padres finally had the lead at 6-5. France was central to that push, finishing 3-for-5, while Machado added two hits and Cronenworth reached enough to score the winning run later. The Padres did not have one overwhelming offensive star; they had production arriving in layers, from Tatis’ homer to Taylor’s two-RBI night to Salas’ decisive single at the end.

The game refused to stay settled. Miami had been held in check after its five-run start, but Griffin Conine erased the Padres’ lead with a 427-foot home run to right in the ninth. That shot turned a near escape into a deadlock and spoiled a stretch of useful relief work from San Diego’s bullpen, which had piled up strikeouts even while living dangerously around walks. In the 10th, the Padres answered one last time. Salas lined a single to center, Cronenworth scored, and a game that kept reopening finally closed on San Diego’s terms.

Our take: traffic everywhere, precision nowhere

Our take: this was an entertaining win for San Diego, but not a particularly clean one. The Padres did enough offensively — 11 hits, five walks, two homers and the winning hit from Salas — yet they also left 17 runners on base and needed extra innings after trailing by four, tying it, leading by one and then surrendering the tie again. That points to a lineup that created chances consistently, but not always efficiently. A sharper version of this offense probably ends the night earlier.

Miami will leave this one with the harsher frustration. The Marlins had a 5-1 lead, produced 10 hits, drew nine walks and stole five bases, yet finished with only six runs and left 21 men on base. That combination is hard to ignore. When a club creates that much traffic and still comes up short, the strikeout total becomes part of the story, and Miami struck out 14 times. A reasonable lesson from this game is not that the Marlins lacked opportunities, but that they needed more contact in their biggest ones.

San Diego’s pitching has its own warning label. Fourteen strikeouts will always play, and several relievers gave the Padres a chance to recover after Mize’s short outing. But nine walks and 203 pitches are an expensive way to survive, especially against a team that also stole five bases. The Padres won because they kept answering, not because they controlled the game. In a contest with no errors and very little calm, that persistence was enough. Against stronger execution from the other side, it might not be.

Scoring moments

1. 2nd Inning

   Mack grounded into fielder's choice to second, Marsee scored, Ramírez out at second.

2. 2nd Inning

   Lopez homered to left center (367 feet), Mack scored.

3. 2nd Inning

   Taylor homered to left (388 feet).

4. 3rd Inning

   Ramírez doubled to left, Marsee scored.

5. 3rd Inning

   Ruiz singled to left, Ramírez scored.

6. 3rd Inning

   Cronenworth walked, Machado scored, Campusano to second, France to third.

7. 3rd Inning

   France scored on a balk, Cronenworth to second on a balk, Campusano to third on a balk.

8. 3rd Inning

   France scored on a balk, Cronenworth to second on a balk, Campusano to third on a balk.

9. 3rd Inning

   Taylor hit sacrifice fly to center, Campusano scored, Cronenworth to third.

10. 4th Inning

    Tatis Jr. homered to center (410 feet).

11. 6th Inning

    France doubled to right, Harris scored.

12. 9th Inning

    Conine homered to right (427 feet).

13. 10th Inning

    Salas singled to center, Cronenworth scored.