By admin 
The Padres didn’t have a ton of history with the arms lined up for the Nationals’ bullpen game on Tuesday night.
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But it was baseball’s second-worst bullpen.
Flummoxed early by unfamiliar arms, the Padres scored five runs over the final two innings for a 5-4 win that allowed them to keep pace with the Arizona Diamondbacks, who won in extra innings to remain a half-game ahead in the race for the NL’s final wild-card spot.
The win, just the Padres’ fifth in their last 13 games, secured a second series win in a row.
Manny Machado’s second hit of the game tied the game at 4-4.
His first, his 1,136th as a Padre to pass Garry Templeton for second on the team’s all-time list, started the Padres’ first rally of the game after waiting to collect their first hit of the game until one out in the fifth inning.
Machado singled to open the seventh, Ty France followed with a single, and after a wild, pitch, Jackson Merrill put the Padres on the board for the first time.
In the eighth, Jared Simpson walked all three batters he faced, pinch-hitter Austin Hays plated a run with a sacrifice fly off Erik Tolman and Machado made the Nationals pay for another wild pitch by sneaking the game-tying single through the middle of the infield.
France followed with his second single of the game and Luis Campusano’s second hit of the game, a broken bat blooper, fell in to give the Padres the lead.
Adrián Morejón pitched a scoreless ninth for the save.
Casey Mize struck out seven and was an out shy of a quality start when he was lifted for Randy Vásquez, who promptly allowed a two-run double to bury the Padres in a 3-0 hole, which felt especially deep because to that point that Padres had mustered just one hit off the Nationals’ planned bullpen game.
The names through six innings: Riley Cornelio (3 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 4 Ks), Zak Kent (2 IP, 1 H, 0 ER), Yovanny Cruz (1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, BB).
No Padres had any big-league history with them and that clearly worked against them as they were no-hit until Luis Campusano’s one-out single in the fifth inning.
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“They’ve got a lot of guys in their bullpen that present a lot of different challenges,” Padres manager Craig Stammen said. “Most of the guys we have not faced, and I think that’s the biggest challenge for our hitters is facing some new arms that have some good stuff.”
Mize’s start was at least a giant step in the right direction after a checkered started to his Padres tenure.
The first impression included allowing a career-high eight runs in 3⅓ innings in his first start after the trade to San Diego.
Mize followed that with two quality starts, then slipped down the dugout steps and rolled his right ankle in his fourth start for the Padres. He avoided the injured list but allowed 11 runs-six earned – over his next two starts (9 IP) – to carry a 6.67 ERA as a Padre into Tuesday’s start.
Even the home run that Mize allowed with one out in the second inning was hardly a mistake.
At least not one over the plate.
But Yohandy Morales was ready for the sinker that ran roughly a foot inside of the plate and pulled out to left to put the Nationals on the board.
Mize largely cruised from there, but Abimelec Ortiz doubled with one out in the sixth inning, CJ Abrams walked with two outs and Stammen pulled Mize with 90 pitches through 5⅔ innings.
Vásquez jogged in from there and Brady House promptly doubled to put the Padres in a 3-0 hole. After a scoreless seventh inning from Vásquez, Yuki Matsui allowed a solo homer to pinch-hitter Andres Chaparro in the eighth inning.
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