Manny Machado, Nelson Cruz hammer Giants with 7 combined RBIs in Mexico
MEXICO CITY --Manny Machado put San Diego ahead in the seventh inning with his second homer and the 11th of the night, and the San Diego Padres outslugged the San Francisco Giants 16-11 Saturday night in Major League Baseball's first game in Mexico City.
Nelson Cruz, Juan Soto, Fernando Tatis and Xander Bogaerts also went deep for the Padres, who outhomered the Giants 6-5 and outhit them 17-13 in the thin air of Estadio Alfredo Harp Helú, which opened in 2019. At 7,349 feet above sea level, this two-game series is the highest elevation for big league games. MLB's previous regular-season trips to Mexico were for games in Monterrey.
Before a crowd of 19,611, Tatis doubled off Tyler Rogers (0-1) and Machado hit his fourth home run of the season. The Padres tacked on four more runs in the eighth, when Trent Grisham hit a two-run double and Cruz had a two-run single.
Cruz went 5 for 6 with four RBIs and became the oldest player to homer for the Padres when he went deep leading off the third inning against Sean Manaea. Cruz was 42 years, 302 days, surpassing Rickey Henderson at 42 years, 283 days on Oct. 4, 2001.
"Im just happy to be out there helping the team win. Im not interested so much on the records", Cruz said.
San Francisco's Brandon Crawford, LaMonte Wade Jr. and Mitch Haniger homered off Joe Musgrove. Blake Sabol hit a two-run homer in the seventh against Steven Wilson that tied the score 10-10, and David Villar homered five pitches later.
Soto and Bogaerts homered on consecutive pitches from Jakob Junis in the fourth, and Tatis and Machado went deep in a three-pitch span against Junis in the fifth. After each home run, the Padres topped the triumphant hitter with a mariachi sombrero in the dugout. Machado said Tatis bought the green, red, white and black hat Friday night at the team hotel and the group weighed using it to celebrate or a mask wrestler Rey Mysterio gave to Machado.
"If we can keep hitting like that, maybe well bring the mask and the sombrero to San Diego," Machado said. "We are going to use them tomorrow for sure".
Bogaerts became the first player to homer in regular-season games in four countries, adding to his previous drives in the U.S., Canada and England.
Tom Cogrove (1-0), a 26-year-old left-hander who played at Manhattan College, won in his major league debut in the seventh for the Padres. He relieved in the seventh with a runner at third and retired Joc Pederson on a groundout.
Thairo Estrada had four hits, and Estrada and Haniger each drove in three runs.
San Francisco wore black jerseys with "Los Gigantes" across the chest while San Diego was in its Nike City Connect uniforms of pink, gold and green on white.
The Giants trailed 3-0 and 5-2, went ahead 8-5 with a six-run fourth and fell behind 9-8 in the fifth. After holding the Padres scoreless for the only time in the sixth inning, the Giants took an 11-10 lead in the seventh.
Manaea allowed five runs and five hits in just two innings, and Musgrove gave up seven runs and six hits in 3 1/3 innings.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
