Rengifo's Throwing Error Hands Tampa Bay a Wild 7-6 Win
San Diego led 6-3 heading into the bottom of the seventh, then watched a single throwing error by second baseman Rengifo turn into a three-run gift that flipped the game entirely. Tampa Bay walked off with a 7-6 victory on the back of one of the ugliest innings of the season.
The first six innings looked like a straightforward slugfest between two teams who couldn't miss. Tampa Bay struck first in the first when Hicks singled to center and Díaz scored. San Diego answered in the third — Harris scored on a Cronenworth double to tie it — but Aranda immediately crushed a 453-foot shot to center to put Tampa back in front. The Rays held that edge until the sixth, when Ty France launched a 351-foot homer to right that scored Machado and gave San Diego a 3-2 lead. Caminero answered right back with a 426-foot blast to center to knot it at three. Both starters — Nick Martinez for Tampa Bay and Walker Buehler for San Diego — each allowed 7 hits and 3 earned runs, so neither deserved to be the story of the night.
The seventh inning is where this game became something else entirely. Machado singled to right, scoring both Harris and Rengifo and sending Tatis Jr. to third. Then Tatis Jr. stole home while Machado stole second, pushing the lead to 6-3. San Diego appeared to be in full control, and the Padres' bullpen looked like it just needed to close the door on a comfortable win.
It didn't. Díaz singled to center, and Rengifo — the same player who had scored a run for San Diego moments earlier — uncorked a throwing error that allowed Mullins to score. Then Palacios and Walls both scored on the same error, turning a 6-3 deficit into a 6-6 tie in a matter of seconds. The win probability swung from 37% to 66% on that single play. That's the whole game right there — one bad throw erasing a three-run lead and flipping the momentum entirely. One batter later, Simpson singled to left and Mateo scored the walk-off run to give Tampa Bay the 7-6 final. Dustin Harris went 3-for-4 with two runs scored for San Diego, and it means nothing. Rengifo's error is the only number that matters from this one, and it looks like it will haunt the Padres long after the box score is forgotten.