Aug 27, 2020 4 min read

Wil Myers and the San Diego Padres went from being one out away from a painful loss to one of the most joyous celebrations of the season.

Myers hit a game-ending three-run homer to cap a seven-run rally with two outs in the seventh inning and give the Padres a 10-7 win against the Seattle Mariners in the first game of a doubleheader. Manny Machado had two homers among his three hits and drove in four runs.

The played the doubleheader after the Mariners voted unanimously not to play Wednesday night as a protest of the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The Mariners have the most Blacks in baseball, eight on the active roster and 11 on the 40-man roster.

San Diego rallied from a 7-3 deficit to stun the Mariners, scoring all seven runs with two outs in the seventh.

Myers watched for a few seconds as his majestic shot sailed well over the left-field fence, tossed his bat and pointed to the Padres’ dugout in one motion, and then began his trot. He tossed off his helmet as he approached home and leaped onto the plate and into as wild a celebration.

National League

L.A. Dodgers 7, San Francisco 0: Clayton Kershaw struck out four over six scoreless innings, leading the Los Angeles Dodgers past the San Francisco Giants 7-0 a day after he spoke out in support of his Black teammates as the clubs decided not to play in protest of racial injustice.

“For guys to stand together and not play a major league baseball game is a big deal,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said before Thursday’s first game of two seven-inning contests in a doubleheader.

AJ Pollock hit a two-run homer and Dodgers star Mookie Betts reached 1,000 hits in his 824th game with his sixth-inning single. The souvenir ball was quickly retrieved, authenticated and put in a protective box.

Cincinnati 6, Milwaukee 1: Jesse Winker homered twice, prized prospect Jose Garcia singled in his first big league at-bat and the Cincinnati Reds beat the Milwaukee Brewers 6-1 Thursday in a doubleheader opener one day after both teams opted not to play to protest racial injustice.

The reactions by the teams followed the weekend shooting by police of Jacob Blake, a Black man, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, about 40 miles south of Milwaukee. Other major league teams have since followed, with seven games postponed Thursday.

Winker had a two-run shot in the fifth, his eighth, to put the Reds up 5-0 and a solo shot in the third.

Reds starter Sonny Gray (5-1) allowed four singles over five scoreless innings, striking out four and walking two. Gray escaped a bases-loaded jam in the second, getting Eric Sogard on an inning-ending liner to right.

After Craig Stammen allowed four runs in the top of the seventh, Seattle’s Taylor Williams (0-1) gave it right back in the bottom of the inning.

American League

Mariners trade walker to Jays: The Seattle Mariners have traded right-hander Taijuan Walker to the Toronto Blue Jays for a player or cash.

The trade was announced Thursday morning, about three hours before Walker had been scheduled to start the first game of a doubleheader against the San Diego Padres.

The first game of the doubleheader was a makeup of Wednesday night’s game, which was postponed after Mariners players voted not to play to protest the shooting of a Black man by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Walker was 2-2 with a 4.00 ERA in five starts this season, with 25 strikeouts and eight walks. He is 33-33 with a 3.95 ERA in parts of eight big league seasons.