Sheets' all-around effort key as bats break out in comeback win

CINCINNATI -- Before Saturday’s game with the Reds, Padres manager Mike Shildt spoke of his club’s determination to break out offensively.

He was confident that after battling in the ninth inning Friday, down eight runs, that could carry over into a positive result.

It took a while Saturday, but Shildt’s faith in his lineup was rewarded. The Padres wiped out deficits of 3-0 and 4-1 and rallied for a feel-good win at Great American Ball Park, a victory in which home runs accounted for all six runs.

Gavin Sheets unloaded a tape-measure go-ahead three-run homer to go with a pair of doubles and a spectacular catch to rally the Padres past the Reds, 6-4.

While Sheets did everything possible at the plate to give the Padres a fighting chance, his glovework led to the game’s biggest defensive play.

With the Reds leading, 4-1, and threatening to add another run in the fifth, Sheets laid out to his right and snared a sinking liner off the bat of Rece Hinds to strand a runner at third against reliever Bryan Hoeing.

“I think the biggest thing is just the work that we've been putting in is starting to pay off in games,” said Sheets, who played just his 37th career game (29th start) in left on Saturday. “You can do as much as you want in practice, but until it works in games, until you see it paying off in games, that's what really matters.”

He landed just shy of the warning track corner in left and lost his sunglasses in the process but made the catch.

“He beat them on both sides of the ball today, and it was a nice contribution,” Shildt said of Sheets. “A plus, plus play, big play for a lot of reasons. It's a couple runs on the board and still the opportunity for them to get more so, yeah, he drove in three and took away at least two.”

“The left fielder, Sheets, not only did he hurt us with the bat but the play he made in left field. To me, [that] was probably the biggest play of the game,” Reds manager Terry Francona said.

Jake Cronenworth cranked a Statcast-projected 403-foot two-run homer to right off reliever Scott Barlow, his seventh of the season in the sixth to bring the Padres within one, 4-3.

“I think it's just having good at bats, seeing a ton of pitches, and obviously getting [starter Andrew Abbott] out of the game,” Cronenworth said. “He was kind of cruising there for a couple innings. And then some quality at bats. There were like three or four at-bats in a row that were five-plus pitches, and now you get into their bullpen in the next inning.”

Hoeing allowed a leadoff single to Will Benson in the sixth, but he retired the next three batters, setting the stage for the go-ahead three-run charge in the seventh.

Sheets crushed a changeup from Cincinnati reliever and loser Lyon Richardson (0-2) to the back seats of the sun and moon deck in right to make it 6-4.

“Homers are great, obviously, but they're extremely hard to do,” Sheets said. “And so obviously we had a bunch of timely hitting today. And it's a good ballpark to hit in and the ball flies here and just not trying to do too much and have good at-bats. We were able to hit a bunch out of the ballpark today, which has been new for us.”

Luis Arraez also visited the back section of the right field bleachers with a homer off Abbott in the fifth, the only run the Padres were able to score off the Cincinnati lefty. The Padres stranded runners in scoring position in the second, third and fourth without scoring.

But the key Saturday for Padres batters was determination. The Padres may have been leaving runners in scoring position but they were also driving up Abbott's pitch count - quickly. In the fourth, San Diego drained 28 pitches out of Abbott. In the next inning, they worked him for 24.

Those 52 pitches drove Cincinnati’s seven-win starter from the game and allowed San Diego to go to work on Barlow and Richardson in the sixth and seventh, the decisive innings of the game.

“Abbott, I thought, threw the ball well, but he looked up, he’s in the fifth grinding at 95 pitches,” Shildt said. “Good at-bats. [Our] lefties -- Sheets against the lefty, Luis [Arraez] against the lefty, Jackson [Merrill] -- [had] great at-bats. ... Just kept going, going, going.”