September 28 – Luis Arraez went 3-for-5 with two doubles, a triple and a run scored to lead the San Diego Padres against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Friday night’s first game of a three-game series in Phoenix.
Jackson Merrill and David Peralta each had two hits and an RBI as San Diego locked up the No. 1 wild-card spot and the No. 4 seed in the National League playoffs. The Padres (92-68) open Tuesday against an opponent yet to be determined.
Arizona (88-72) lost for the fourth time in five games and is in a three-way virtual tie with the Atlanta Braves (87-71) and New York Mets (87-71) for the other two wild-card spots.
Ayers raised his batting average to .314 in an attempt to overtake Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers for the NL batting title. Ohtani has a .309 batting average and leads the league in home runs (54) and RBIs (130).
The Diamondbacks’ Corbin Carroll homered and Eugenio Suárez had two hits.
San Diego’s Yu Darvish (7-3) allowed three runs and three hits in 5 1/3 innings. He had four strikeouts and three walks.
Roberto Suárez earned his 36th save with a one-out walk in the ninth inning.
Arizona’s Merrill Kelly (5-1) allowed five runs and eight hits in 5 2/3 innings. She struck out eight and walked one.
Kelly, who has a 9-3 career record in 15 games against the Padres, surrendered four runs and four hits in the first inning.
Manny Machado and Merrill hit an RBI single, followed by a grounder
Two batters later, Peralta hit an RBI single. Finishing the outing with a single.
Carroll hit his first home run in the bottom of the first inning. Lourdes Gurriel Jr.’s sacrifice fly in the bottom of the inning pulled Arizona to within 4–2.
San Diego added a run in the fourth inning when Kyle Higashioka singled and scored on Arraez’s triple with two outs.
Arizona State scored a run in the sixth on Eugenio Suarez’s two-out RBI single.
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