Padres capitalize on three Reds bunting mistakes in 6-2 win

The seventh inning stripped Cincinnati down to the basics and exposed how quickly a game can tilt when routine plays stop being routine. San Diego kept putting the ball down, the Reds kept missing the answer, and Gavin Sheets turned the opening into a tying double and the go-ahead run as the Padres beat Cincinnati 6-2 at Petco Park.

Andrew Abbott had carried a one-run lead deep into the game, throwing 93 pitches through six innings and retiring 10 straight batters before Terry Francona sent him back out for the seventh. Francona said Abbott “definitely deserved to go back out,” and the left-hander had earned that trust for much of the night. Then the Padres started the inning with a bunt, Cincinnati misplayed it, and San Diego asked the same question again. The Reds failed on the second straight bunt as well, and the third consecutive attempt brought the same result, a breakdown that left the defense chasing the inning instead of controlling it. From there, Sheets did the damage, lining a tying double and later scoring the go-ahead run while the Padres kept the pressure on.

The inning mattered because it layered pressure on top of contact. San Diego scored its first two runs of the seventh on back-to-back doubles off Abbott, then used the bunt sequence to keep the frame alive and force Cincinnati into more mistakes. Samad Taylor, one of two players called up last week to provide a spark along with Jase Bowen, delivered a career-high three RBIs. Taylor drove in the go-ahead run in the seventh and added an RBI single in the eighth, while Freddy Fermin also chipped in with a solo homer in the third and later an RBI single. Fermin’s blast gave San Diego a 1-0 lead and made him the first Padre to homer in three straight games this season.

The Padres, who entered the night as MLB’s worst run producers, did not overwhelm Cincinnati with power so much as punish every lapse. Taylor also made a pair of outstanding catches, underscoring how much of San Diego’s win came from defense and depth rather than one big swing. Adrián Morejón got the win and Abbott took the loss as the Padres improved to 34-31 and the Reds fell to 31-34 before 37,223 fans in a 2 hour, 48 minute game. Cincinnati’s fifth straight defeat made the seventh inning look even worse, because the loss was decided less by the final margin than by the breakdowns that opened it up.