San Diego, CA

Padres come back, but lose to Diamondbacks in 10 innings

Published

2 years ago

July 7, 2024

Press Room

Padres come back, but lose to Diamondbacks in 10 innings

The Padres’ offense didn’t do much of anything for five innings in the middle of Saturday night’s game at Petco Park.

Then they commenced trying to do something they have done quite a bit this season.

They made the game close in the seventh inning and tied it in the eighth before losing 7-5 in extra innings for the first time this season.

The Diamondbacks scored three runs off Wandy Peralta in the 10th. That denied the Padres their 19th victory this season in a game in which they trailed or were tied in the seventh inning or later. Their 18 victories earned that late are the same number they had all last season.

“We’ve done really good,” Jake Cronenworth said after the Padres’ fourth loss in their past 16 games. “We’re not going to let a game where we lose by two runs and had bases loaded in the 10th get us down.”

Padres starter Matt Waldron threw 39 pitches in the second inning and then finished four more innings. He had allowed two runs to that point before being charged with another run in the seventh, when Yuki Matsui allowed an inherited runner and a runner of his own to score.

That gave the Diamondbacks a 4-1 lead, and that’s when the Padres started to convert on opportunities.

The Padres could not make much of all the strikes Diamondbacks starter Brandon Pfaadt threw them and then did nothing against local product Kevin Ginkel before scoring twice off left-hander Joe Mantiply in the bottom of the seventh to get to 4-3.

Ha-Seong Kim began the comeback with a single. He went to second on Kyle Higashioka’s dribbled infield single and to third on a line drive fielder’s choice by Luis Arraez that resulted in Higashioka being out at second.

With runners at the corners, Jurickson Profar lined a double to the left field corner that scored Kim and moved Arraez to third. Jake Cronenworth’s bunt scored Arraez before Manny Machado, who had decided Saturday’s game with a walk-off home run, struck out against new reliever Bryce Jarvis.

Kim tied the game in the eighth with a two-out double off Ryan Thompson, driving in Donovan Solano, who had led off with a double against Jarvis.

Neither team scored in the ninth – not the Diamondbacks against Adrián Morejón nor the Padres against Thompson.

But the Diamondbacks clobbering of Peralta commenced with his ill-advised attempt to make a play on a bunt by Geraldo Perdomo on which third baseman Manny Machado was the only one who had a chance to get the out.

Perdomo’s bunt was perfectly placed, and he might have beat a throw from Machado, but even before he bobbled the ball, Peralta was at a disadvantage since he was running away from first base.

“It was a big play,” a perturbed Mike Shildt said. “We know Perdomo’s gonna bunt. (He) put down a good bunt. Couldn’t make a play. So it opened it up for a bigger inning.”

Peralta then issued a walk to load the bases, and Christian Walker sent a grounder through a drawn-in infield to drive in two runs. Stephen Kolek replaced Peralta and allowed one of the runners he inherited to score while getting three outs.

The Padres came back from one down to win on Machado’s walk-off homer Friday after the bullpen allowed six runs in the top of the ninth.

But after scoring a run on another Solano double and having the bases loaded with no outs in the bottom of the 10th on Saturday, Bryce Johnson struck out against Thyago Vieira and Kim struck out and Kyle Higashioka flied out to left field against Humberto Castellanos.

Machado, who was celebrating his 32nd birthday on Saturday, gave the Padres a 1-0 lead in the first inning.

His broken-bat flare into left field, on an 0-2 count, was the Padres’ third single of the inning and sent Arraez racing home from second base.

The Padres had scored 10 runs (eight earned) in Pfaadt’s two previous starts against them this season, and it seemed they might be on their way to another big night.

But they could not capitalize on David Peralta’s lead-off single in the second inning nor Jackson Merrill’s one-out single in the fourth.

Through four innings, Pfaadt had thrown strikes on 41 of his 49 pitches (84 percent) and the Diamondbacks led 2-1.

Kim led off the bottom of the fifth with a double off the wall in left-center field before Kyle Higashioka struck out.

Arraez then lined a ball at 98 mph that nailed Pfaadt in the left ankle. The ball bounced well past the third base line — far enough that Kim rounded third full speed before slamming on the brakes and getting back to third when third baseman Eugenio Suárez sprinted over and grabbed the ball.

Pfaadt was replaced by Ginkel. The El Capitan High School and Southwestern College grad struck out Profar and Cronenworth to end the fifth and Machado and Solano to start the fifth before getting Merrill on a lineout.

The Diamondbacks had tied the game during Waldron’s marathon second inning, which just sort of leaked away from him as he threw more pitches than any Padres pitcher had in any inning this season.

The inning began with an infield single by Christian Walker before Gurriel popped out and Brandon McCarthy struck out.

Waldron then walked Suárez, moving Walker to second, before Poway’s Kevin Newman hit a flare off the end of his bat to bring in Walker.A full-count walk to No.9 batter Jose Herrera loaded the bases before Waldron struck out Corbin Carroll with a full-count sweeper at the bottom of the zone and on the inside edge.

Waldron was at 53 pitches. He got through the next two innings on a total of 25 pitches but also allowed a go-ahead homer to Gurriel leading off the fourth.

Waldron was at 89 pitches after six innings but went back out to start the seventh and promptly yielded a single to Suárez. Shildt said he liked the matchup of Waldron against Suárez and was also trying to shorten the game for his beleagured bullpen.

When Suárez got the hit, Shildt went to Matsui.

Matsui surrendered a one-out double by Herrera that brought in a run charged to Waldron and a two-out triple by Geraldo Perdomo that drove in a second run to make it 4-1.

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San Diego, CA

Padres roster review: Sung-Mun song

Published

12 hours ago

January 6, 2026

Press Room

Padres roster review: Sung-Mun song – San Diego Union-Tribune

SUNG-MUN SONG

Position(s): Third base, second base
Bats / Throws: Left / Right
2026 opening day age: 29
Height / Weight: 6-foot / 194 pounds
How acquired: Signed as a free agent in December 2025
Contract status: A four-year, $15 million deal will see Song make $2.5 million in 2026, $3 million in 2027, $3.5 million in 2028 and $4 million in 2029 if he does not opt out of last year; Half of his $1 million signing bonus is due in January 2026 and the other half in 2027; There is a $7 million mutual option for 2030.
fWAR in 2025: N/A
Key 2025 stats (KBO): .315 AVG, .387 OBP, .530 SLG, 26 HRs, 90 RBIs, 103 runs, 68 walks, 96 strikeouts, 25 steals (144 games, 646 plate appearances)

STAT TO NOTE

.214 — Song’s isolated power in 2025, a career high as he prepared for a jump to the majors. Isolated power measures a player’s raw power (extra bases per at-bat) and Song had a .190 OPS in 2018, in his third year as a pro in Korea, before it dropped to .101 in 2019 and then a career-low .095 in 2023. Hitting 19 homers pushed Song’s isolated power to .178 in 2024 and then a career-high 26 homers push it even higher in 2025.

Idle — Drafted by the Heroes in 2014, Song debuted in the KBO the following year but didn’t become a regular until 2019. A drop-off in production — he had an .884 OPS in 78 games in 2018 and a .597 OPS in 103 games in 2019 — was followed by losing the 2020 season and a chunk of the 2021 season to military service obligations. Then three straight sub-.700 OPS seasons forced Song to rethink his approach to professional baseball, especially in the face of the likes of Ha-Seong Kim, Jung Hoo Lee and Hyeseong Kim generating big-league buzz. Song started with weight training and nutrition. A hitting coach also helped him with balance, pull-side power and the ability to catch up with the sort of fastballs that seem to dog Korean players when they arrive in the States. It all added up to a breakthrough year in which Song paired 19 homers, 104 RBIs and 21 steals with a .340/.409/.518 batting line. To prove it was no fluke, Song followed up his 2024 season with another strong effort that solidified his wish to try his hand in the majors. The ensuing, four-year, $15 million deal that Song signed with the Padres in December cost his new employer a $3 million posting fee to be paid to the Kiwoom Heroes.

2026 OUTLOOK

Like Kim before him, Song appears to be joining the Padres as a utility player with the hope that he blossoms into more as he gets comfortable in a new country and league. Song had experience in Korea at third base (500 starts), second base (149 starts) and first base (38 starts). Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller even mentioned outfield reps in passing as he assessed how Song could help the Padres in 2026.

Former KBO player Sung-Mun Song shakes hands with Padres vice president of amateur and international scouting Pete DeYoung after signing a contract with the San Diego Padres at Petco Park on Saturday. (Photo by Armond Feffer/San Diego Padres)

ROSTER RANKINGS

24. INF Sung-Mun Song
25. RHP Matt Waldron
26. OF Bryce Johnson
27. RHP Ron Marinaccio
28. RHP Bryan Hoeing
29. LHP Kyle Hart
30. RHP Jhony Brito
31. INF Will Wagner
32. OF Tirso Ornelas
33. RHP Garrett Hawkins
34. RHP Miguel Mendez
35. RHP Daison Acosta
36. RHP Ty Adcock
37. RHP Alek Jacob
38. INF Mason McCoy

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San Diego, CA

Poway removes hundreds of trees to make city safer

Published

24 hours ago

January 5, 2026

Press Room

Poway removes hundreds of trees to make city safer

Drivers traveling through the city of Poway may have noticed a dramatic change to the landscape. Since September, more than 1,400 trees — many of them eucalyptus — have been removed as part of the city’s hazardous mitigation grant project aimed at reducing wildfire risk and improving public safety.

Poway is spending roughly $3 million on the effort, which focuses on removing trees that are dead, dying or considered dangerous. Much of the cost is being reimbursed by FEMA. Officials say the project is designed to make emergency evacuation routes safer while improving the overall health of trees along major roadways, rights-of-way and open spaces.

“I was relieved that there were some efforts being put into improving our resiliency to wildfire in our community,” said Poway Fire Chief Brian Mitchell.

Mitchell said spacing out trees can slow the spread of a wildfire and prevent roads from becoming blocked during an emergency.

“That certainly has the potential to block our first responders from accessing somebody’s house in the middle of an emergency,” Mitchell said.

City leaders also point to storm safety as a key reason for removing hazardous trees under controlled conditions rather than risking falling limbs or entire trees during severe weather.

“I don’t want to be driving down that street and just a random limb just happened to collapse, you know, just hit me,” said Poway resident Dawn Davis.

Davis said she also worries about the threat the trees pose to nearby homes.

“I don’t want anybody’s homes here to be damaged, either by them or fire,” Davis said.

A Poway spokeswoman said a certified arborist evaluated nearly 6,800 trees in Poway. About 2,800 invasive trees were recommended for removal.

This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC San Diego. AI tools helped convert the story to a digital article, and an NBC San Diego journalist edited the article for publication.

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San Diego, CA

Aztecs land twin transfers from Michigan State to bolster offensive line

Published

1 day ago

January 5, 2026

Press Room

Aztecs land twin transfers from Michigan State to bolster offensive line

The front of the Fowler Athletic Center at San Diego State includes a pair of double doors that open from the inside out. Replacing them with revolving doors would seem appropriate, given all the comings and goings nowadays.

SDSU had two dozen football players — including five starters on the defense — enter the NCAA transfer portal, which opened Friday. The first wave of candidates to replace them visited over the weekend.

And by Sunday afternoon, SDSU announced its first two signings. It was a package deal.

Sophomore offensive linemen Charlton and Mercer Luniewski are Michigan State transfers from Cincinnati. And twins.

Charlton Luniewski’s social media says that he goes by “Big Chuck,” although Mercer is listed as an inch taller and 13 pounds heavier at 6-foot-6, 320. Mercer is also, by the way, 45 minutes older.

Charlton profiles at guard and Mercer at tackle, though SDSU typically works players in multiple spots to find the ideal fit. The twins are expected to challenge for spots on the two-deep if not the starting O-line, which lost three starters to graduation.

The twins were highly recruited two years ago out of Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy, where they also competed in track and basketball. They have three years of eligibility remaining.

The Luniewskis were among a dozen transfer recruits who visited SDSU over the weekend. Commitments have come from half of them. More recruits are scheduled for the coming this week as the Aztecs look to replenish the roster.

SDSU also received a commitment Sunday from Nate Henrich, a 6-6 edge from Division II Gannon University in Pennsylvania. Henrich had six tackles at Gannon, but he is viewed as having high upside with good size and length. He could provide needed depth at a position where the Aztecs lost four players to the portal.

SDSU also expects commitments from Oregon State edge Kai Wallin, Portland State safety Isaiah Green and College of the Sequoias wide receiver Marshel Sanders.

Wallin is a 6-5 senior from Sacramento who played in nine games this season (seven starts) for the Beavers, making 17 tackles with one sack and four quarterback hurries. Green, a 6-1 junior from Oxnard, had a team-high 101 tackles at Portland State. Sanders is a 5-11 junior from Fresno who had 70 receptions for 929 yards and four touchdowns.

Bostick back

SDSU wide receiver Jacob Bostick announced on his social media Sunday that he is returning for the 2026 season.

His post read, in part: “Excited to get back to work with my coaches and teammates.”

Bostick had 11 catches for 157 yards and three touchdowns over six games before suffering a season-ending knee injury during practice six games into the season. He anticipates being ready to return by fall camp.

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