Padres come back, rout Twins to even series

MINNEAPOLIS — Saturday night looked for a time as if it would be an example of how the Padres will aim to win playoff games.

Except for the fact they won’t be playing the Twins in October.

So that eventually ruined the whole postseason narrative of a starting pitcher grinding for five innings and a stellar procession of relief pitchers closing out a tight game.

Because the Twins, who sold off a third of their team (and half of their bullpen) at the trade deadline, sent out a rookie reliever with a 6.43 ERA to protect a two-run lead in the sixth inning and a journeyman reliever with a 6.43 ERA to replace him when the game started to slip away.

And slip away the game did.

The Padres scored two runs in the sixth inning to tie the game against Mick Abel and seven runs against Abel and Brooks Kriske in the seventh inning on their way to a 12-3 rout of the Twins in the middle game of their series at Target Field.

“We talk a lot about being better as the game goes,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “… They made a change, and we were able to take some quality at-bats (and get) contributions from basically every single person in the line up. I love the adding on, the hunger to it.”

The lopsided result did not change the fact Nick Pivetta grinded through five innings. But in his shortest outing since June 20, a span of 11 starts, he kept the game close.

Pivetta threw his last pitch with the Padres trailing 3-1.

Adrian Morejón took over a tie game at the start of the sixth and began a run of six straight batters retired by him and Jason Adam. Jeremiah Estrada worked around a lead-off single in a scoreless eighth inning.

That was it for the Padres’ high-leverage relievers, who were rested after not pitching the previous three days, and Alek Jacob worked a 1-2-3 ninth.

Elias Díaz hit two home runs, Ramón Laureano hit one and every player in the Padres starting lineup except Jose Iglesias reached base multiple times.

It was neither the type of opponent nor the magnitude of necessity inherent in the postseason, but the Padres did need the victory.

It was just their second in six games, and they are jockeying for playoff position with the season down to its final month.

The victory coupled with the Dodgers’ loss to the Diamondbacks, got the Padres back to within a game of the National League West leaders. The Cubs maintained their two-games lead over the Padres in the race for the top NL wild-card spot by beating the Rockies. The Mets, who hold the final wild-card spot, lost to the Marlins to fall three games behind the Padres.

The night began with the Padres having trouble against Twins starter Taj Bradley, who entered the game with a 4.95 ERA.

Their only hit off him was a two-out home run by Díaz that tied the game 1-1 in the fifth inning The Twins retook the lead in the bottom of the fifth on Byron Buxton’s two-run homer of Pivetta.

With the frail state of the Twins’ bullpen, however, it still felt like the Padres had the advantage when both starters left the game.

The Padres had pummelled Abel for five runs in 1⅔ innings when he started for the Phillies on July 2.

They got a break at the start against him Saturday, as Luis Arraez’s routine grounder was mishandled by shortstop Brooks Lee.

Manny Machado followed with a single grounded through the right side, his 1,000th hit with the Padres. And after Ryan O’Hearn struck out, Laureano and Gavin Sheets hit successive RBI singles.

Abel got through the sixth and lasted four batters, all of whom singled, into the seventh inning. He left with the Padres up 5-3.

Kriske replaced Abel with two on and retired the first batter he faced before yielding an RBI single to Sheets. Kriske got another out before Jake Cronenworth drove in two more with a double off the wall in left field and Diaz cleared the wall in left field to make it 10-3.

Laureano followed a lead-off single by O’Hearn in the eighth with his seventh home run in 27 games with the Padres to provide the final margin.

“We were having great at-bats,” Cronenworth said. “… Once we got into that bullpen, we did a great job there.”

That is their best recipe for victory, no matter the opponent.

“I’m not happy with how things turned out,” Pivetta said of his outing. “But to see the team achieve the overall goal is the more positive thing. I mean, that’s what we’re all in for, is winning baseball games. … That’s what makes me happy at the end of the day. And a win’s a win.”