Jackson Merrill snaps slump with 2 HRs to help Padres edge Phillies

Manny Machado’s sacrifice fly snapped a tie in the bottom of the seventh inning on Saturday as the San Diego Padres clinched a series win over the visiting Philadelphia Phillies with a 5-4 decision.
Machado’s drive to deep right field scored Fernando Tatis Jr., who started the rally with a one-out single off Tanner Banks (2-1) and raced to third on Luis Arraez’s single to center.
Rookie David Morgan (1-1) pitched an inning of scoreless relief for his first MLB win. Jeremiah Estrada, pitching for the third straight night, got the last three outs for his third save of the year.
Neither starter was involved in the decision. Philadelphia’s Zack Wheeler gave up four runs off six hits and a walk while striking out six over six innings of work.
San Diego’s Yu Darvish lasted 4 2/3 innings, allowing five hits and four runs with three walks and two whiffs.
Darvish got himself into trouble in the second inning, falling behind 2-0. Alec Bohm reached after getting plunked and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Darvish then stopped a Nick Castellanos comebacker but threw wildly to first for an error that allowed Bohm to score. Castellanos scored soon after on a J.T. Realmuto double to left-center.
That lead seemed secure with Wheeler, who had allowed just three runs in his last 40 innings, on the mound. But the Padres erased it in their half of the second when Gavin Sheets doubled and trotted home on Jackson Merrill’s two-run homer to left-center, his sixth of the season.
Later in the inning, Jake Cronenworth doubled and scored on a two-out single by Martin Maldonado.
Darvish held that lead until the fifth, when the Phillies went ahead 4-3 on a two-run single to left by Edmundo Sosa. He came into the game after Bohm left with a left rib contusion, the result of being hit by Darvish.
Merrill, who entered the game in a 5-for-53 skid that dropped his average to .258, tied it in the sixth when he lifted his second homer of the day over the fence in right-center field.
He hadn’t homered in his previous 35 games.