SAN DIEGO -- This weekend, the Padres began a stretch of 26 games in 27 days -- perhaps the most daunting portion of their 2025 schedule. The teeth of that stretch? The 2 1/2 weeks beginning Monday in San Francisco. San Diego plays 14 games against key division rivals, plus another three against the red-hot Brewers. Only three of those 17 games come at Petco Park.
So, yeah, the Padres needed this one.
There are no must-win games on June 1. But they could hardly afford to start the month -- this month -- by losing a series at home to the last-place Pirates.
And they didn’t. Despite losing Gavin Sheets after an early collision with the left-field wall, the Padres rallied for a dramatic 6-4 victory on Sunday afternoon at Petco Park, scoring four times in the bottom of the seventh as they batted around.
“That inning was huge for us,” said Manny Machado, whose sacrifice fly put the Padres on top for good. “[We were] stringing together some really good at-bats, making those guys pitch and come to us. Kind of looked like our old selves.”
It’s been a rough couple weeks for the San Diego offense -- which was held scoreless on Saturday and had scored one run or fewer in seven of the past 14 games. Machado went deep in the first inning on Sunday (breaking a light panel in the left-field scoreboard in the process). But for most of the afternoon, it looked like the Padres might not get much else.
Until the seventh. They worked four walks in the frame, and scored four runs without recording an extra-base hit. Elias Díaz came off the bench with a pinch-hit RBI single, cutting the deficit to one. Luis Arraez tied the game by spraying an opposite-field single of his own. Then Machado put the Padres on top.
“We’ve got to do it from the first inning -- that’s when we’re at our best,” Machado said. “But it’s definitely a good starting point. That’s what this team’s made of. Everyone through that lineup can do that.”
Clearly, the Padres will need more where that came from if they’re going to withstand the month ahead. Next up: Four games in San Francisco, followed by three in Milwaukee, before they return home for their first series of the season against the rival Dodgers. Then, after the only off-day in that stretch, it’ll be time for another seven-game road trip -- through Arizona and L.A.
“We’ve got to bring the same energy, try to play our best game every single day,” said Fernando Tatis Jr. “Day at a time.”
The Padres rallied just in time to avoid entering that stretch with an ugly series loss to Pittsburgh. Right-hander Randy Vásquez struggled, then exited in the fourth with San Diego trailing, 4-1.
Reliever Wandy Peralta walked the first hitter he faced, loading the bases with the heart of the Pirates lineup due up. But he escaped trouble by punching out Andrew McCutchen, then getting Bryan Reynolds to bounce into perhaps the game’s decisive play.
Reynolds hit a tapper slowly up the third-base line. In an instant, catcher Martín Maldonado made a judgment that the ball wasn’t going foul. He fielded, spun and fired to first, beating Reynolds by half a step, maybe less.
“It’s do-or-die,” Maldonado said. “I felt like I had a chance. … Just trying to prevent a run right there.”
The Pirates’ chance at a big inning evaporated. The Padres were still in the game -- and they took full advantage a few innings later.
“It was huge,” manager Mike Shildt said of Maldonado’s play. “It segues into a big part of the game -- the unsung heroes of the bullpen.”
Indeed, five Padres relievers combined to work 5 2/3 innings of scoreless ball, while the offense rallied.
The victory was tempered only by the loss of Sheets, who exited in the fourth inning after crashing hard into the left-field wall. After the game, Sheets was still being evaluated for a head bruise and soreness in his wrist/thumb area as well as his hip, Shildt said. Additionally, Sheets was still going through standard concussion protocol. The team offered no specifics on the nature of those injuries or a recovery timeline.
Sheets spent several minutes on the ground on the warning track before walking off under his own power. He sustained the injury tracking Adam Frazier’s home run ball, which put the Pirates on top, 4-1. It was the last time they’d score.