Tucson Padres baseball
Padres win in a walk-off with 3-run homer
Cody Decker's walk-off three-run homer in the ninth extended the Tucson Padres winning streak to six games with an 8-6 victory over Oklahoma City Wednesday at Kino Stadium. The walk-off win is the Padres sixth of the year and moved them to two games back of the Pacific Southern Division lead. The six-game winning streak ties a Padres 2013 high.
Oklahoma City went ahead 4-0 in the second on five hits, including an RBI single from Ruben Sosa and Trevor Crowe's two-run double. Scott Moore put the Padres on the board in the bottom half of the inning with an RBI double to right. The RedHawks scored twice in the fourth with the help of Sosa's second RBI of the game on a double to left. Reymond Fuentes extended his hitting streak to five games in the sixth with an RBI double to cut the Padres deficit to 6-2.
Fuentes drove in two more runs with a single in the seventh, and later scored on Daniel Robertson's RBI single to bring Tucson within one of the RedHawks. Oklahoma City had an opportunity to add to its lead in the eighth with the bases loaded and two outs, but Sosa was called out for interference at second. Jonathan Galvez led off the bottom of the ninth with a single to left and moved to third base on a single by Jesus Merchan, who advanced to second on the play. With two runners in scoring position and no outs, Decker launched a home run over the left field wall against former college teammate Hector Ambriz to seal the win for the Padres. It was Decker's team-leading 15th homer of the season.
Reliever Kevin Quackenbush earned his seventh win of the season, while Ambriz was charged with the loss. Tucson starter Burch Smith went four innings, yielding six runs on ten hits. Jason Lane kept the Padres in the game by pitching 3.2 scoreless innings of relief, scattering two hits and one walk.
Tim Hagerty is the play-by-play announcer for the Tucson Padres.
