Jase Bowen and Samad Taylor were called up last week to add a spark—and they did, helping the Padres manufacture runs with three straight bunts during a seventh-inning rally as San Diego beat Cincinnati 6-2.
SAN DIEGO — Monday night at Petco Park felt like a throwback before it ever felt like a win.
After the Padres had struggled for stretches. the bottom of the lineup carried them to a 6-2 victory over Cincinnati—riding the part of the order that had been hardest to rely on. In the seventh inning, San Diego turned a rally into a go-ahead burst built on repetition: three consecutive bunts. It was the kind of execution you can’t fake. the kind that forces the defense to scramble and gives the offense momentum with every small decision.
Jase Bowen and Samad Taylor—called up last week—were the sparks San Diego was hoping for. Their timing couldn’t have been more direct: after Xander Bogaerts and Gavin Sheets opened the frame with consecutive doubles. the Padres laid down the bunts in succession. Bowen beat out an infield hit. Taylor followed with another bunt that plated the go-ahead run. and Freddy Fermin kept the pressure going by forcing an error.
“‘They basically won us the game tonight, just being able to execute what we’re asking them to do: Steal some bases, put some bunts down, take some good ABs,’” Padres manager Craig Stammen said.
Bowen described what it meant as it was happening.
“It’s the best,” Bowen said. “It’s old-school baseball. That’s what we’re here to do, to just kind of create chaos and have fun with it.”
One inning later, the same lineup principle kept producing. Bowen, Taylor and Fermin strung together three consecutive singles, and both Bowen and Taylor stole a base during the rally. San Diego added three tack-on runs as the momentum snowballed.
Even if the offense didn’t necessarily need extra insurance—Mason Miller was as dominant as ever—the tone of the night mattered. The Padres had dropped 11 of their previous 13 games, and Monday carried the feel of something finally turning into motion instead of waiting on it.
Taylor put it plainly.
“Yeah, we’re scuffling,” Taylor said. “But in the blink of an eye, it’s going to turn around.”
What made Taylor and Bowen stand out wasn’t just the rally. It was that they looked prepared to do the small things that change innings. Taylor got his first start for the Padres on Sunday. and his all-around performance earned him another start on Monday night. He was excellent again, with two hits and a pair of standout defensive moments.
In the second inning, Taylor cut down a run with a two-hop throw to the plate. In the sixth, he saved another run by crashing into the wall to rob Matt McClain of extra bases.
Bowen went 2-for-3 with a walk, and he, too, has been solid defensively since his callup. He carries an edge that showed up most in how he approached the bunting.
Neither Bowen nor Taylor is expected to become the Padres’ long-term answer in left field—even with Ramón Laureano likely out for the season. The plan is different: Sheets should see starts there, Bryce Johnson is an option, and come trade season a corner bat is expected to be the top priority.
But Monday night made the case for something valuable: as bench options, the duo can absolutely assert themselves. Taylor has already reached base in five of his 10 trips to the plate.
“We both went down to [Triple-A] El Paso and worked hard,” Taylor said. “That’s my partner next to me. We did it in El Paso, and we’re going to do it here.”
The catching situation. which had felt dire just three days earlier. was part of the story too—not because it flipped overnight. but because it finally started moving in the right direction at the right time. Freddy Fermin’s OPS had slipped below .400, and the Padres had been getting almost no offensive production from their backstops.
Then the home runs arrived.
Fermin hit a decisive home run on Saturday night, went deep again on Sunday, and followed that by getting the Padres on the board with a homer in a third straight game—making him the first Padre to go deep in three straight games this season.
“Just a little confidence,” Stammen said. “We know these first couple months are not who he is offensively. He’s been crushing it on defense.”
The Padres know Fermin won’t homer every night. But they also believe he has to be more of a threat at the plate than he’d been, and the past few games have been a major step in the right direction.
With Luis Campusano on his way back and Fermin starting to hit, the Padres can think about allocating their resources elsewhere during trade season. They might even have enough at catcher, after all.
“Couldn’t be happier for Freddy,” Stammen said. “We’re lucky he’s a Padre.”
On Monday, with the order bottom-heavy and the baseball old-fashioned on purpose, the Padres looked like a team that knew exactly what it was trying to do—and finally got it all to work.
Padres Jase Bowen Samad Taylor Cincinnati Reds small ball bunts Petco Park Freddy Fermin Mason Miller Craig Stammen
Three bunts and suddenly it’s “old-school” like that doesn’t happen every game.
I’m confused… so they beat the Reds 6-2 because of bunts? Seems like small stuff but I guess it adds up. Bowen and Taylor are like the new magic or whatever.
Wait, Stammen said they were “stealing some bases” and “put some bunts down” but I thought stealing bases is harder than bunting? So like did the Reds just forget how to play defense or what. Petco always throws me off too.
Old-school baseball is right, but I feel like calling up two guys and winning 6-2 is more about Reds errors than the bunts. Also the article says Freddy Fermin forced an error… so who even made it? Like I get it, bunting creates chaos, but Cincinnati’s lineup looked shaky.