– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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ARLINGTON, TEXAS — The emotions etched on the face of David Peralta were evident as he rounded the bases in the seventh inning, soon after providing the biggest hit in his tenure as a member of the San Diego Padres.
Peralta launched a tie-breaking two-run home run into the right-centerfield bullpen to give the Padres a 6-4 victory over the Texas Rangers inside Globe Life Field on Wednesday evening. Manny Machado also homered for the Padres, who have won 10 of their last 13 games.
Starting the season in the Chicago Cubs’ minor league system, Peralta joined San Diego and was brought up to the parent club in May. Though his batting average has hovered around .200, Peralta is now the everyday right fielder as newly-named All-Star Fernando Tatis Jr. has been sidelined since June 21 because of a thigh injury, and he came up in the seventh inning tonight with the score tied at 4-4 when Peralta crushed his first home run of the year off Rangers reliever Dane Dunning.
The home run was also Peralta’s first dinger since July 8 of last season, when he was a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“Big relief,” Peralta said. “It’s just this moment, being working so hard every single day to help the team to do something. And finally, I did something good for the team.”
Machado’s two-run home run off Rangers starter Jon Gray was the third baseman’s 11th of the season, as it opened the scoring and ended the Rangers’ home shutout streak at three games.
Corey Seager returned to the lineup for the Rangers after missing two games as a result of getting hit by a pitch on the left wrist last Sunday night in Baltimore, and his run-scoring double in the bottom of the third tied the game at 2-2. Josh H. Smith immediately followed Seager’s two-bagger with a double of his own to give the Rangers their first lead of the night.
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Wednesday evening’s game, with photos taken by ALOST staff photographer Ross James. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page. Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 37 pictures in total.
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