Nick Pivetta was sharp, but the Phillies beat the Padres 2-1 to cap a first half full of narrow outcomes. San Diego heads into the All-Star break with a 52-44 record and in possession of the final wild card spot in the National League. Sunday’s loss dropped the Padres to 21-14 in one-run games. The Padres gave away a run in the top of the first inning. A throwing error by Manny Machado gave Philly two aboard with two outs. JT Realmuto followed with a dribbler to third, that went down as an infield single after a charging Machado failed to barehand the baseball. Bryson Stott would have been the final out, but Luis Arraez was charged with an error on a throw to Nick Pivetta at first – allowing Harper to score the game’s first run. Pivetta fanned Point Loma product Otto Kemp to limit the damage to a single run. The Padres had a chance to answer right away, but Cristopher Sanchez struck out Jose Iglesias with the bases loaded to keep the home team scoreless. Both teams remained scoreless over the next four innings. Iglesias returned to the plate with two on in the sixth. This time the veteran infielder snuck a grounder up the middle plating Machado for the tying run. Philly pulled back ahead in the eighth. Bryce Harper got into scoring position with a one-out double down the left field line. Realmuto followed two batters later with a liner just out of Jackson Merrill’s reach for a two-out RBI double. The Padres went 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position and finished the game with 10 left on base. Luis Campusano grounded into an inning ending double play with two aboard in the sixth. Iglesias flew out to center with two on in the eighth. Arraez had two on in the ninth when he lined out to left to end the game. Pivetta closed out the first half with his 11th quality start of the season. He allowed just one unearned run over 6.2 innings, striking out eight while allowing just three hits and two walks. The righty heads into the All-Star break with a 2.88 ERA and impressive 1.02 WHIP in his first season with the Padres. Sanchez was stellar again for the visitors, surrendering just one earned run over 7.1 frames, striking out six. The lefty wraps up his stay in San Diego with a 2.51 ERA on the year. This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. to open the story in your web browser.
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