It’s been nearly a week since Jackson Merrill logged a hit.
He’s still finding ways to help win games.
Three days ago, that meant robbing a home run on center. In a 4-2 win over Phillies on Friday night, that meant a sacrifice bunt that stoked the Padres’ only rally off Phillies left-hander Ranger Suarez.
Suarez threw wildly on Merrill’s sacrifice and the Padres pounced for three runs, rookie Ryan Bergert struck out seven in 4⅔ innings in his return from the injured list and baseball’s second-best bullpen held in front of a sellout crowd of 43,856 at Petco Park for a consecutive win for the first time since June 24-25.
Manny Machado’s eighth-inning homer provided some breathing room for All-Ster closer Robert Suarez, who retired the side in order in the ninth for his MLB-leading 28th save.
Jeremiah Estrada and Adrian Morejón both followed with scoreless frames and Jason Adam left the bases loaded in the eighth inning of a 3-2 game.
Fresh off his addition to the All-Star Game, Morejón’s appearance extended his scoreless innings streak to a career-high 15⅓ innings.
Bergert’s seven strikeouts were one shy of a career high. He allowed both home runs on solo shots from Nick Castellanos and Kyle Schwarber, surrendered two total hits and walked two over ⅔ innings.
Yuki Matsui walked Schwarber to load the bases after replacing Bergert in the fifth inning, but he fetched an inning-ending grounder from Bryce Harper to maintain a 3-2 lead.
Bergert essentially picked up where he left off after taking a comebacker off his forearm on June 24. Imaging did not reveal any breaks, so Bergert missed just over two weeks with a forearm contusion, made a rehab start on Sunday for Triple-A El Paso and threw 52 of his 82 pitches for strikes in his return.
Through his first 10 appearances in the majors — the last six as starts as a stopgap option while the team contended with Yu Darvish’s balky elbow and Michael King’s troublesome nerve — Bergert is sporting a 2.84 ERA.
Castellanos’ home run gave the Phillies’ a 1-0 homer in the second inning. Schwarber’s blast the next inning answered the Padres’ three-run second.
Bergert is ranked No. 21 among Padres prospects by MLB.com
“He did a great job of controlling strikes,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said of Bergert’s appearances before his stay on the injured list. “He did a great job of not making it bigger than it is. He made a lot of quality pitches consistently.”
A one-inning hiccup was enough to get on top of Ranger Suarez early.
Xander Bogaerts began a three-hit day with a leadoff single.
Because Merrill doesn’t have a hit since July 5, he looked to bunt Bogaerts to second. But Suarez threw wildly to first, putting runners on the corners.
Jose Iglesias followed with a run-scoring double, Elias Díaz plated a run with a groundout and Fernando Tatis Jr. singled to right-center to open up a 3-1 lead.
The Padres were smart to strike when they did.
Suarez allowed just three more hits before his exit with two outs in the seventh inning—two more singles from Bogaerts and Tatis’ broken-bat, two-out singles to put runners on the corners and chase the Phillies’ left-hander from the game after 96 pitches.
Phillies manager Thomson replaced Suarez with another left-hander, Tanner Banks, and Luis Arraez grounded out to end the inning.
Suarez finished with five strikeouts, six hits and allowed and three walks.
Two of his three runs being unearned after his own error on Merrill’s bunt — not to mention catcher J.T. Realmuto throwing wildly to second on Tatis’ 20th steal — lowered his ERA to 1.94 on the season.
