Ryan O'Hearn, Jose Iglesias help Padres rally in ninth, beat D-backs

Kevin Acee, The San Diego Union-Tribune on Aug 7, 2025

Published in Baseball

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PHOENIX — Ryan O’Hearn made his first big contribution to his new team just in time.

His game-tying home run leading off the ninth inning against left-hander Kyle Backhus ended a night of futility by almost everyone in the lineup and led to the Padres’ 3-2, series-clinching victory over the Diamondbacks on Wednesday.

Xander Bogaerts scored the winning run after he followed O’Hearn’s blast with a double, advanced to third on Jake Cronenworth’s sacrifice bunt and scored on a single by Jose Iglesias.

Mason Miller, the marquee acquisition at last week’s trade deadline, navigated a two-out walk with three strikeouts in the bottom of the ninth to earn his first save with the Padres.

O’Hearn had gone hitless in three at-bats Wednesday and was 1-for-12 since being acquired from Baltimore along with new left fielder Ramón Laureano.

His homer helped keep another new addition from taking the loss.

Nestor Cortes, in his first start for his new team, became the fifth consecutive Padres starter to not make it beyond the fifth inning.

Starting for the first time for the Padres and first time in the major leagues in four months, allowed a run in each of the first two innings before getting two outs deep in the fifth.

But a pair of two-out walks ended his night after 76 pitches.

It was the third time since Saturday and the second night in a row in which the starter did not even survive the the fifth inning.

And Tuesday’s game went 11 innings, prompting Padres manager Mike Shildt to use seven of the nine arms in his bullpen.

He stated the obvious before Wednesday’s game.

“Starters going deeper in games is always going to benefit your bullpen,” Shildt said Wednesday afternoon. “We’ll get in the game and see how it goes and manage accordingly.”

For him, that meant going to one of his highest-leverage relievers in the fifth inning of a game the Padres trailed for a second consecutive night.

Jason Adam struck out all four batters he faced to get through the sixth.

Bogaerts’ towering home run that sailed just to the fair side of the pole in left field in the top of the seventh got the Padres to 2-1.

Shildt then brought in Adrian Morejón, another reliever used almost exclusively when the Padres have a late lead, to continue chasing the victory as he successfully had on Tuesday.

The Padres’ pending off day meant the manager had some leeway.

Considering the Padres acquired him at the end of his rehab assignment — he was working back from an elbow flexor strain — the brevity of Cortes’ outing was not all that surprising.

And what he did Wednesday was a great deal better than what JP Sears, the other left-handed starter the Padres got at the trade deadline, did on Monday.

Sears yielded at least one run in each of the first four innings and five runs in all while completing five innings.

Cortes followed that path for just a couple innings.

An 0-2 fastball at 93 mph in the center of the strike zone was the problem in the first inning, as Corbin Carroll launched it 443 feet and over the tall wall in right-center field.

An 0-2 pitch that nicked the sleeve of Blaze Alexander and an 0-1 pitch that hit James McCann on the hand were the problems in the second inning. Because those hit batters followed Tyler Locklear’s single and loaded the bases with no outs. Cortes did well to get out of that allowing just one run, on a sacrifice fly by Alek Thomas.

He then executed a 10-pitch third inning facing the Diamondbacks’ 2-3-4 hitters and got through the fourth in 12 pitches with help from a double-play that made up for a lead-off walk.

Cortes began the fifth with two strikeouts before walking Ketel Marte and Carroll.

With that, Shildt went to Adam.

Morejón made quick work of the Diamondbacks in the eighth inning.

The ninth inning was the first time the Padres did anything with a scoring opportunity.

Freddy Fermin’s two-out double in the third inning was the Padres’ first hit against Anthony DeSclafani. A lead-off single by Laureano in the fourth was their second. Their third, a one-out single by Cronenworth in the fifth inning, ended DeSclafani’s night after 71 pitches.

The Padres were into one of the major league’s most vulnerable bullpens.

And when left-hander Jalen Beeks walked Jose Iglesias, the Padres had two baserunners in an inning for the first time.

That was short-lived.

Because after Cronenworth tagged up and went to third on a fly ball to right field by Fermin, he was thrown out at home on a double steal attempt.

Their other big chance came in the eighth when they had runners at first and second with one out before Jackson Merrill’s dribbler to third resulted in the lead runner being forced out and Manny Machado struck out.