ATLANTA — It was another three hours of lead changes and walks and big hits and big outs and an October night’s worth of tension in early-April game.
The Padres are back to .500, and they are halfway through what has so far been a thrilling series against the Braves.
Friday night’s 5-4 victory was earned with aggressive baserunning and opportunistic hitting early and scoreless work by relievers Brent Honeywell, Luis Garcia and Josh Hader over the final 4 1/3 innings.
A night after starter Blake Snell failed to get out of the fourth inning in what ended up a 7-6 loss on a walk-off single in the ninth, Nick Martinez was lifted with two outs in the fifth on Friday.
Honeywell inherited loaded bases and ended the inning on three pitches before getting the next five outs and leaving with two on and two out in the seventh. Garcia entered, walked the first batter he faced and ended that inning with a pop fly out before surviving an error by Xander Bogaerts that began the bottom of the eighth.
Hader issued a one-out walk before earning his second save.
Such theatrics are not entirely unexpected given the Padres and Braves are widely considered among the favorites to win the World Series. (FanGraphs.com had the Braves as favorites and the Padres with the second-best chance at the start of the season.)
A night after the teams traded leads four times before the Braves won on a walk-off single in the ninth, the Padres made their third lead stick on Friday.
They won without hitting a homer, the first time they have done that this season.
In fact, 15 of their 20 runs over the previous four games had been driven in by home runs. They had gone 6 for 32 (.188) with runners in scoring position in that span and were 10 for 58 (.172) with runners in scoring position on the season.
They were 4 for 9 Friday.
The Padres took a 2-0 lead in the first inning with help from Manny Machado’s good luck and despite his peculiar decision.
Juan Soto walked with one out, and Machado followed with a hard grounder up the middle fielded by second baseman Ozzie Albies, who tossed the ball to shortstop Orlando Arcia as he approached the bag. But Arcia never came close to actually stepping on the base before firing late to first.
That gave the Padres runners at first and second with one out and cleanup hitter Nelson Cruz at the plate. Two pitches later, they had runners at second and third via a double steal that didn’t draw a throw.
Cruz, down 0-2, lined the next pitch to the corner in right field, which should have easily scored both runners but only scored Soto because Machado hung back at second base as if he thought he might have to tag up.
Even if Machado, generally a heady baserunner, thought Ronald Acuna Jr. might make an unlikely catch, the correct play seemed to be to advance halfway. He ended up being held at third after rounding the base hard.
A Jake Cronenworth strikeout put the Padres in peril of paying for the gaffe before walks by Ha-Seong Kim and Austin Nola forced Machado home.
The Braves’ rookie pitcher was at 34 pitches to that point before striking out Trent Grisham on three pitches.
They stole another base and got some more good fortune and another run in the second inning.
José Azocar led off with a single flared to right field, stole second and went to third on Soto’s fly ball out to the track in center field.
After Machado drew a two-out walk, Cruz ripped a grounder up the middle at 102.8 mph that Albies snared with a dive. Given the velocity of the grounder and the 42-year-old Cruz’s relative immobility, Albies likely would and likely would have thrown out Cruz had he been able to extricate the ball from the webbing of his glove. But the delay allowed Cruz to beat Albies’ throw by a half-step as Azocar scored to make it 3-0.
Martinez got though two innings in just 27 pitches. After Braves left-hander Jared Shuster worked his first 1-2-3 inning in the top of the third, the Braves saw 36 pitches from Martinez and tied the game in the bottom of the third.
Marcell Ozuna led off the third with a home run. A strikeout of Sam Hilliard followed before Martinez briefly devolved into a Snell caricature with two walks and a wild pitch that brought home a run before Austin Riley’s single drove in the Braves’ third run.
Machado and Cruz contributed to creating another run (with help from Cronenworth) in the top of the fifth.
Machado led off the inning by lining a double to the gap in left field. He moved to third on a single Cruz grounded under the dive of third baseman Riley and scored on Cronenworth’s sacrifice fly to left field.
But again, Martinez lost his command and lost the lead.
It was again uncomfortably similar to what Snell had done the night before.
Snell walked three straight batters, the last with the bases loaded, to bring in the Braves go-ahead run before being lifted in the fourth inning Thursday. Martinez walked three of the final four batters he faced to walk in the tying run.
Honeywell replaced Martinez and, after having his first pitch hit 385 feet and just foul down the right-field line, struck out Eddie Rosario on three pitches to end the inning.
The winning run was scored by Grisham after he walked to start the sixth, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Azocar and scored on a single by Bogaerts.
