Manny Machado’s second home run of the game was a go-ahead, two-run shot in the seventh and Nelson Cruz capped the scoring with a two-run single on his fifth hit — tying a career high — Saturday as the San Diego Padres defeated the San Francisco Giants 16-11 slugfest in the first Major League game played in Mexico City.
Sixteen of the game’s 27 runs scored on 11 homers in a game played at the highest elevation (7,349 feet) in Major League history at Alfredo Harp Helu Stadium.
Each team had two sets of back-to-back homers. The Padres finished with six homers to the Giants’ five. San Diego also out-hit the Giants 17-13, with San Diego also drawing 10 of the 15 walks issued in the game.
But the most notable stat of the game might have been turned in by Padres reliever Nick Martinez, who retired all six hitters he faced — striking out five, including whiffing the side in the ninth to close out the game — to hand left-hander Tom Cosgrove a win in his big league debut. Cosgrove retired the only hitter he faced to end the seventh.
The Giants were leading 11-10 in the bottom of the seventh when Fernando Tatis Jr. doubled leading off against Tyler Rogers (0-1). Machado followed with an opposite-field homer.
Trent Grisham hit a two-run double to increase the Padres’ lead to 14-11 in the eighth. Cruz then hit his two-run single to cap his 5-for-6 game with four RBIs. Machado had three hits with three RBIs and four runs, while Thairo Estrada had four hits and three RBIs for the Giants.
Mitch Haniger’s first homer of the season, a 456-foot, three-run shot ignited a six-run Giants fourth that erased a 5-2 Padres lead. Haniger’s homer was the third off Padres starter Joe Musgrove, who gave up back-to-back shots to Brandon Crawford and LaMonte Wade Jr. in the third. Musgrove was tagged for seven runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts in 3 1/3 innings.
Juan Soto and Xander Bogaerts hit back-to-back homers in the bottom of the fourth off Giants reliever Jakob Junis. An inning later Tatis (two-run shot) and Machado went back-to-back off the right-handed Junis as the Padres scored in a fifth straight inning to regain the lead at 10-8.
But the Giants jumped back on top 11-10 when Blake Sabol (two-run home run) and David Villar hit consecutive blasts off Padres reliever Steven Wilson in the top of the seventh.
–Field Level Media