The San Diego Padres punched back
Down by 4 with the NLCS on the line, the San Diego Padres found a way to fight back and win game 2 to tie the series before heading to Philadelphia.
Heading into the bottom of the 2nd inning of game 2 of the NLCS, the San Diego Padres had been outscored 6-0 by the Philadelphia Phillies so far in the series.
The Phillies had their other ace on the mound, Austin Nola’s younger brother Aaron Nola, and it felt like a 4-0 lead could hold since the road team had won game 1 by a score of 2-0.
The Padres needed something to get out of their offensive funk and they couldn’t rely on Trent Grisham to be that offensive catalyst anymore. Instead, they leaned on the confidence of their manager.
Brandon Drury and Josh Bell have both been pretty terrible for the better part of two months. Bell had a solo HR in the Mets series but there’s a reason that both of these guys, traded for at the deadline and acquired to add some power to the Padres lineup, had been platooning at DH (where the team had no better options).
But, in a must-win game with the team’s postseason hopes resting in the balance, Bob Melvin did something he hadn’t done since the end of the regular season: He benched Wil Myers and put Bell and Drury in the lineup together. He went with offensive upside over defense.
His DH (Bell) and 1B (Drury) rewarded his faith in them by going 5-8 with 5 RBIs. That, paired with a good (but odd) outing from Blake Snell and another lockdown performance from the Padres bullpen was all San Diego needed to even the series before heading to Philadelphia.
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