With Padres in dire need of big bop, Machado delivers game-winner

ATLANTA -- Perhaps a trip to Atlanta was just what the doctor ordered for Manny Machado and the recently struggling Padres.

San Diego entered Friday night’s series opener against the Braves with a six-game losing streak, but Machado hit a ninth-inning, game-winning solo home run as the Padres pulled out a 2-1 win at Truist Park and improved to 5-0 against Atlanta this season.

The Padres scored just one run over the first eight innings, on Gavin Sheets’ solo home run in the top of the second. Then came Machado’s Statcast-projected 422-foot home run off Braves closer Raisel Iglesias. It was just Machado’s fourth home run of the season and ended a drought of 63 at-bats without one.

“It was huge,” Machado said. “Obviously, the stretch that we were in wasn’t a good one. To come out with a victory like that [was huge]. We fought. It wasn’t easy. We fought against a very good team with a good pitcher on the mound. We fought until the end there.”

The Padres were outscored, 39-9, during their losing streak, and were facing a tough customer in reigning NL Cy Young winner Chris Sale on Friday. Sale gave up one run on four hits and one walk with six strikeouts in seven innings. Machado credited Sheets, who was responsible for Sale’s lone blemish with a home run in a lefty-lefty matchup.

“It takes a whole team effort,” Machado said. “It takes all of us to go out there and score some runs. We’re facing a Cy Young winner. The guy was dealing and threw the ball really well. Who hits a homer and scores off him? A lefty.

“Gavin goes out there and does it. You’re not expecting that. He’s probably the last person you would think that would take [Sale] deep with the lineup we had today. That was it. That tells you everything. It doesn’t take one guy. It takes a whole lineup.”

Machado was 0-for-7 with four strikeouts and no hits in his career against Iglesias. Machado earned his first hit off Iglesias by driving a low slider 109.7 mph, over the left-field wall. Machado swung and missed on a slider on the previous pitch.

“I missed the one before and kind of took an awkward swing,” Machado said. “He came back with it. I don’t think it was as sharp as the first one. It had a little bit of the plate, kind of where I was looking for it. I finally put a good swing on one.”

Prior to the losing streak, Machado had a 14-game hitting streak. He then went 2-for-24 during the losing streak.

“[Manny] will be the first to tell you, the game’s been challenging him lately,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “He had the 14-game hitting streak and got opportunities, and he was giving everything he had. He had the right approach. You can just tell Manny always wants it. He went in there with a big at-bat in the ninth and got a slider that he liked and did what Manny does and put a good swing on it.”

In a 1-1 game in the top of the sixth, Machado came to the plate with a chance to give San Diego the lead, as the Padres had one out and Fernando Tatis Jr. at third base. Machado hit a ground ball directly to Braves third baseman Austin Riley, who threw out Tatis at home to keep the game knotted.

“[Sale] didn’t give me anything to hit there, and Riley made a hell of a play,” Machado said.

Starting pitcher Nick Pivetta settled in after giving up a leadoff home run to Ronald Acuña Jr. in the bottom of the first. He allowed just the lone run on four hits with seven strikeouts and four walks over six innings, and his ERA is now 2.72.

Shildt said a ninth-inning, game-winning home run on the road may provide a spark for the Padres.

“You want to see some breakthroughs and get some breaks and you make your own [breaks] in this game,” Shildt said. “We’ve broken through, and now it’s time to get back to the left side of the column.”