Padres rally past Nationals as Washington sets blown-save record

It took a while for anyone to notice how much was riding on a Tuesday night in San Diego. Casey Mize, the pitcher the Padres got back in a trade with Detroit, was doing the job they brought him over to do (2097520833174409621) — 7 strikeouts, 1 walk, one hit allowed, the only run a Yohandy Morales homer on a pitch a foot off the plate.

Rob Friedman

@PitchingNinja

Casey Mize, Dirty Splitters. ✌️

Mize still left trailing 1-0 because the Padres' offense wasn't doing much of anything against Nationals starter Riley Cornelio and the bullpen behind him. Brady House turned a two-out jam into a two-run double in the sixth off Randy Vasquez, freshly moved to relief, and Washington was up 3-0. Andres Chaparro tacked on another in the eighth to push it to 4-1. At that point this looked like a quiet road win for a Nationals team that's been miserable most of the year.

Then the bottom of the eighth happened. Jared Simpson walked the bases loaded to start the inning, and Erik Tolman came in to try to clean it up. He didn't. San Diego had the bases juiced with nobody out, down three, in a game that mattered a lot more than a random September Tuesday usually does — Arizona had already won earlier that night, and the Padres were fighting to not fall further back in the NL Wild Card race.

Talkin' Baseball

@TalkinBaseball_

Manny Machado ties the game in the eighth inning!

Machado's hit tied it after an 8-pitch battle, and it wasn't just a big swing in the moment — it also moved him past Garry Templeton into 2nd on the Padres' all-time hits list. Two batters later, Luis Campusano flipped a broken-bat single into the outfield that snuck the go-ahead run home.

Talkin' Baseball

@TalkinBaseball_

Luis Campusano continues to come through for the Padres! This time it's a broken bat single for the lead!

Adrian Morejon closed it out from there, and the Padres walked away with a 5-4 win that felt a lot bigger than a regular late-season game against a last-place team. San Diego and Arizona are still separated by roughly half a game for the final NL Wild Card spot, with 18 games left in the year and a season series between the two clubs still unsettled — meaning nights like this one, where the Padres claw back a game they had no business winning, could end up deciding the whole thing.

For the Nationals, the loss is its own kind of milestone. Washington's bullpen blew its 38th save of the season, a new MLB record, breaking the mark of 37 set by the 2024 White Sox. It's the kind of record nobody wants, and it capped a night where a rookie reliever walking the bases loaded to open the inning turned a comfortable lead into a season-defining stat line.