Minnesota Twins at San Diego Padres

Everything went wrong for the Padres to begin Saturday night’s game against the Minnesota Twins. Casey Mize walked off the mound with a trainer after just 2 2/3 innings with a right ankle sprain. The Twins raced out to a 5-1 lead after four innings, while the Padres had managed just one hit. Their opponent was mashing, their bullpen was about to be taxed, and their offense couldn’t do much of anything. And yet, the Padres won anyway. Such is the way things are going for baseball’s hottest team. Jake Cronenworth hit two key doubles to kick-start a late rally, Ty France delivered the go-ahead RBI single in the seventh to cap a four-run inning, and the Padres stormed back to stun the Twins, 7-5, in front of a raucous, sellout crowd at Petco Park. The Padres have won 20 of their last 27 games dating back to July 24. They own the best record in baseball in that time. “Credit to the guys in the dugout,” manager Craig Stammen said. “They kept that energy up. They kept believing. They kept clapping their hands. Let's score once. Figure out a way. Let's crawl our way back. And sure enough, a couple things went our way, and they were able to do it.” Jackson Merrill’s solo home run in the second inning was the only run the Padres managed until the sixth against Twins starter Dean Kremer. Cronenworth led off the sixth with a double and Merrill drove him home with a two-out single to cut the deficit to 5-2. Cronenworth got a four-run rally started in the seventh when he ripped a two-run double off reliever Andrew Morris to bring the Padres within a run. Manny Machado followed with a grounder to the left side and Twins shortstop Kaelen Culpepper threw to third to attempt to get the lead runner, Cronenworth. But third baseman Brooks Lee missed the catch, and Cronenworth scampered home with the tying run. “I mean, the shortstop's playing pretty far over into the hole,” Cronenworth said, "It's a tough play to go your forehand and then fire back to third base. I didn't think he was going to throw back over to third.”