<\/p>\n
KANSAS CITY, Mo. \u2014 The Padres drove in runners. Lots of runners.<\/p>\n
More than they had all season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was needed,\u201d Fernando Tatis Jr. said afterward. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely great when it\u2019s your team doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
A day after squandering piles of opportunities and losing a second straight game, which was its own kind of grander missed opportunity, the Padres beat the Royals 19-2 on Sunday at Kauffman Stadium.<\/p>\n
They scored four runs in the second inning, two in the third and one apiece in the fourth and sixth on solo home runs by Jackson Merrill and Tatis. A five-run eighth was capped by Ty France\u2019s grand slam. Merrill and France homered again in a six-run ninth inning, by which time infielder Tyler Tolbert was pitching for the Royals.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a good feeling,\u201d France said. \u201cIt felt like we haven\u2019t done it in forever. So, it\u2019s nice. \u2026 Came out and played the baseball that we\u2019re capable of.\u201d<\/p>\n
By salvaging the finale of the three-game series, the Padres kept pace in a National League wild-card race in which they have fallen to the fringes.<\/p>\n
They came out of the All-Star break 3\u00bd games behind the Marlins in the race for the final NL playoff spot. Three days later, they are 3\u00bd games behind the Cardinals in the race for that spot.<\/p>\n
That is an OK-news and could-have-been-better-news situation. The Padres could have gained ground if they had not lost a three-run lead in the 10th inning Friday and\/or gotten a few more hits with runners in scoring position Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe let the first one get away from us, so it\u2019s huge today that we came out and did what we did,\u201d France said. \u201cBut we\u2019ve got an important seven games left of this road trip, and we\u2019ve got to continue to play like we did today.\u201d<\/p>\n
All the Padres could do Sunday was try to not let the season continue to slip further away.<\/p>\n
They began this trip, which still has four games in Atlanta and three in Miami remaining, with the knowledge that they are running out of time to persuade president of baseball operations A.J. Preller and ownership that they should be willing to invest at the Aug. 3 trade deadline. Two losses to a team that on Friday was tied for the worst record in the major leagues made Sunday akin to a must-win.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe couldn\u2019t let that team sweep us,\u201d Tatis said. \u201cJust in where we are trying to get. Nothing against that team. But man, it was a battle. We know where we\u2019re at. We know what is in play, and we want to give a chance to (Preller) to make us better and to go on a long run.\u201d<\/p>\n
They went out and gave hope a chance for at least another day.<\/p>\n
After stranding a runner who reached second base with one out in the first inning, they went about being highly productive.<\/p>\n
A day after they twice grounded into an inning-ending double play with a runner at third base and got their only hit in nine at-bats with runners in scoring position on a bunt single, the Padres finished 8-for-18 with runners in scoring position Sunday.<\/p>\n
For the third consecutive game, the Royals struck first with an early home run. This one was hit 432 feet to right field by Jac Caglianone off Germ\u00e1n M\u00e1rquez in the first inning.<\/p>\n
The Padres\u2019 four-run second inning began with an out before singles by Luis Rengifo and Jase Bowen and a walk by Luis Campusano loaded the bases. Tatis drove in two runs with a single and Merrill\u2019s single made it 3-1. A sacrifice fly by Manny Machado drove in the fourth run.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was huge, especially because \u2026 the last couple games we were not at our best, you know, getting those runners in,\u201d Tatis said. \u201cI feel to open a game like that and to go ahead early, it definitely helped us to get an advantage for the rest of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Doubles by Xander Bogaerts and Bowen and a single by Campusano in the third had the Padres up 6-1.<\/p>\n
The Royals got to 6-2 with a pair of doubles in the bottom of the third before Tatis got the lead back to five runs with his second homer in as many days.<\/p>\n
There was still one more tense moment.<\/p>\n
The Royals loaded the bases with no outs in the fourth inning when Josh Rojas singled and two straight runners reached on ground balls \u2014 one of which Manny Machado threw that wide of second and one that Bogaerts threw too-late to second.<\/p>\n
But Yuki Matsui replaced M\u00e1rquez and struck out leadoff hitter Carter Jensen before ending the inning by getting Nick Loftin to ground into a double play.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was the biggest part of the game,\u201d manager Craig Stammen said. \u201cWe got out to a good lead, 7-2, but even then the game is in the balance there. \u2026 Just an amazing effort from him, coming in and being a hero.\u201d<\/p>\n
From there, it was a laugher.<\/p>\n
Even before getting six hits and scoring five times against Tolbert in the final inning, the Padres had surpassed their previous season high in runs (10) and were one hit shy of equaling their season high (14) in hits.<\/p>\n
The 17-run margin of victory was the second-largest in franchise history behind a 21-0 victory at Colorado on May 10, 2025. And it comes 18 days after the Padres suffered the biggest loss in team history, 23-3 at Chicago.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were able to laugh a little bit at the end of the game,\u201d Stammen said. \u201cIt has been so serious here trying to piece this season together. It\u2019s nice to put some smiles out there and be on the other end of one of these games. It doesn\u2019t feel good for the Royals. We know how that feels. But it\u2019s good to be on the other end of this and create some positivity and some laughter \u2014 like, a \u2018Hey, baseball is fun again\u2019 type of feeling we can take into a very important series in Atlanta.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.sandiegouniontribune.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KANSAS CITY, Mo. \u2014 The Padres drove in runners. Lots of runners. More than they had all season. \u201cIt was needed,\u201d Fernando Tatis Jr. said afterward. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely great when it\u2019s your team doing it.\u201d A day after squandering piles of opportunities and losing a second straight game, which was its own kind of grander […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2508722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[308544,25866,347943,21848],"class_list":["post-2508721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty","tag-latest-headlines","tag-mlb","tag-san-diego-padres","tag-sports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Padres-can-finally-feel-good-after-much-needed-laugher-over-Royals.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2508721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2508721"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2508721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2508723,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2508721\/revisions\/2508723"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2508722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2508721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2508721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2508721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}