Padres Enjoy Rare Feat, Winning Third Home Game in Row on Walk-off Homer

Jake Cronenworth walked it off for the Padres at Petco Park Thursday, denying the Brewers with a solo home run in the bottom of the ninth for a 7-6 win.

The Friars, enjoying a burst of power, carried a 6-3 lead late into the game, but watched it fade away as Milwaukee capitalized on walks to score a run in the eighth inning and two in the ninth to tie it up.

The Padres had built the lead on back-to-back blasts in the first by Manny Machado – his was a two-out, three-run shot to right – and Jackson Merrill. Fernando Tatis Jr. added a no-doubter in the fifth and crossed the plate again in the seventh following a double by Jurickson Profar – the lone run to score without benefit of the long ball for the Friars.

So if the Padres were to win as they opened a four-game series against the National League Central leaders, it seemed like the ball would have to leave the park. Enter Cronenworth, after Tatis and Profar struck out swinging to begin the ninth.

The second baseman, facing Joel Payamps, worked the count to 3-2 before sending a long fly ball to right field, just shy of the foul pole – he crouched down to give it a good look, then assured that it had remained fair, flipped his bat and began his victorious trot.

“Initially I thought it was a homer, then I started to see it hook, that’s why I stopped,” he said on the Padres post-game show.

The Petco faithful have been treated to a special run, albeit bracketed by a road trip in which their team struggled, going 1-5. The win marks the third straight home game in which the Friars won on a walk-off, as they did in the final two games of the last home stand against Oakland, thanks to Kyle Higashioka and Merrill.

Next up, Dylan Cease is set to take the mound for the Padres at 6:40 p.m. Friday against Milwaukee’s Colin Rea.