Machado, Tatis Torch Atlanta as Padres Roll 8-3
Manny Machado hit two home runs — 412 and 418 feet — and Fernando Tatis Jr. added a 474-foot bomb to cap an 8-3 San Diego win over Atlanta on July 21. The Padres' middle of the order was simply unplayable, combining for five of the team's eight runs.
San Diego grabbed the lead immediately when Ty France singled to center in the first, scoring Tatis Jr. Atlanta answered hard in the second — Jim Jarvis tripled to right, scoring Dubón and Hicklen to put the Braves up 2-1, a play that swung Atlanta's win probability from 58% to 78%. That looked like the turning point. It wasn't. The Padres dismantled that lead with ruthless efficiency in the fourth: Jackson Merrill homered 405 feet to right center to tie it, Rengifo grounded out to score Sheets, and then Tatis Jr. doubled to right to score Bogaerts, pushing San Diego to a 4-2 lead they would never relinquish.
Then Machado took over. He went back-to-back innings on Atlanta's pitching staff, launching a solo shot 412 feet to left in the fifth and following it with a 418-foot blast to center in the sixth. Those two swings pushed the lead to 6-2 and, frankly, ended any realistic conversation about an Atlanta comeback. The Braves managed a run in the seventh on a balk — a strange, deflating way to score — but Tatis Jr. put the game completely away in the eighth with a 474-foot two-run shot to left center, his longest of the night and the exclamation point on a dominant performance.
On the mound, Walker Buehler was functional rather than dominant — 5.2 innings, 2 hits, 2 earned runs, but 5 walks kept him working harder than necessary. The story of the night was always going to be the offense, though. Reynaldo Lopez lasted just 4.1 innings for Atlanta, allowing 9 hits and 5 earned runs, and JR Ritchie couldn't stop the bleeding either, giving up 3 more runs in 3.2 innings of relief. Mason Miller closed it out with a clean inning, striking out three. San Diego's lineup looks like a problem for every team on its schedule right now — six different players contributed RBIs, and the top of the order was relentless from the first pitch to the last.