Fernando Tatís Jr., Manny Machado and Donovan Solano gifted the San Diego Padres with plenty of insurance against the Houston Astros on Wednesday.
The San Diego Padres entered the eighth inning of Wednesday's showdown with the Houston Astros up just one run, in dire need of some breathing room against the top team in the AL West.Designated hitter Fernando Tatís Jr. led off the bottom of the frame with a solo home run, crushing the first pitch he saw 397 feet to left-center. That brought up third baseman Manny Machado, who had already homered in the sixth.
Machado came through again with another solo shot, this time golfing a low sweeper over the fence in left. For good measure, first baseman Donovan Solano took Kaleb Ort deep for yet another home run, just his seventh of the year. That gave San Diego back-to-back-to-back home runs, as well as a 4-0 lead that would hold strong until the game went final., it marked just the fifth time in franchise history that the Padres have hit back-to-back-to-back home runs in a game. San Diego hadn't belted three consecutive homers since Chris Gomez, Rickey Henderson and Quilvio Veras did so on April 1, 1997.
Tatís hasn't enjoyed quite as healthy of a campaign as Machado, but he has still showed off plenty of pop sinceSolano, despite being an 11-year MLB veteran, is the least accomplished slugger of the three. The home run he hit Wednesday was only the 39th of Solano's big league career, which dates back to 2012 and includes stints with the Miami Marlins, New York Yankees, San Francisco Giants, Cincinnati Reds and Minnesota Twins.
Thanks to the trio's combined explosiveness down the stretch on Wednesday, the Padres now sit at 87-66 on the season. They own sole possession of the top NL Wild Card spot, holding a 4.5-game lead over the first team outside of the playoff picture – the Atlanta Braves – with nine games to go.Sam Connon is a Staff Writer for Fastball on the Sports Illustrated/FanNation networks.
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