A 16-year-old Ethan Salas was months away from officially joining the Padres when Jorge Alfaro’s postgame sign-off after walk-off wins became a rallying cry that the Padres carried all the way to the 2022 National League Championship Series.
“Let’s (bleeping) go San Diego!”
The seed was planted years ago.
After walking off a 7-6 win in 10 innings with a pinch-hit single, the Padres’ 20-year-old catcher — bare-chested and drenched in Gatorade — could hardly wait to play to the remnants of a sellout crowd of 43,433 at Petco Park after finishing a postgame interview on Padres.TV.
“I’ve been waiting to let that rip all year—my whole career,” Salas said.
Which, to be clear, is not very long yet, however storied it is to start as the rare 20-year-old in the majors.
In fact, Saturday’s single was Salas’ first hit that did not go for extra bases. He tripled in San Francisco for his first hit, had a two-homer game earlier in the week at Coors Field and on Saturday was asked to play the hero after Mason Miller’s blown save.
David Morgan stranded the automatic runner in the top of the 10th inning and Jake Cronenworth scampered to third base on a wild pitch to set up the chance for someone to extend the Padres’ win streak to four games.
After Sung-Mun Song struck out, Salas strode to the plate for his first at-bat of the night and sent an 0-2 fastball from Josh Ekness back up the middle to score the game-winning run.
The ensuing celebration spilled into right-center, where Salas’ jersey was stripped off him. Later as he spoke on camera in front of the Padres’ dugout, Jackson Merrill hit Salas with a Gatorade shower.
Salas knows a bit about success as the Padres’ top prospect.
But …
“Yeah, it’s different, man,” Salas said. “You got 50,000 going ballistic for you, and the boys are ready for you with everything. So, I mean, it definitely felt awesome. A lot different than the minor leagues.”
Jackson Merrill #3 douses Ethan Salas #8 of the San Diego Padres after Salas’ walk-off single against the Miami Marlins during the tenth inning at Petco Park on Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026 in San Diego, California. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
The stakes have a lot to do with it.
The win shaved Padres’ magic number to 3 as the Diamondbacks snapped a three-game skid to delay a wild-card celebration until Tuesday in Los Angeles at the earliest.
The Padres also moved up in their quest to host an NL Wild Card Series as a Phillies loss dropped them into the sixth seed. At 86-69, the Padres and Cubs are virtually tied for the No. 4 seed, but the Padres lost the season series and would need to finish ahead of Chicago to host the initial best-of-three series.
Either way, the Padres feel good about the way they’re trending as the final week of the regular season arrives.
“We’ve been playing good baseball for a long time now, and people can say what they want about the beginning of the season, the first half,” Cronenworth said. “But it is what it is. You know, it’s a long season for a reason. We’ve shown who we really are here these last few months.”
Indeed.
Their 12 wins this month are tied for the most in the majors and they began Saturday with an .848 OPS in September, 40 points better than the next-best team (Milwaukee).
So it wasn’t a surprise to see the Padres surge back into Saturday’s contest after Casey Mize (3 IP, 5 ER) was chased after walking five batters and throwing just 39 of his 74 pitches for strikes.
Samad Taylor’s second career homer started the Padres on the comeback trail Saturday, shaving the Padres’ lead briefly to 3-1 in the second inning. Mize coughed up two runs in the third inning, but a run-scoring balk from Eury Perez (4⅔ IP, 5 ER) keyed a three-run third and Fernando Tatis Jr. tied the game with a homer to lead off the fourth.
Two innings later, Dustin Harris doubled with one out and former Padres prospect Esteury Ruiz misplayed Ty France’s two-out line drive into a go-ahead double.
The Padres bullpen locked down the game after Mize’s exit, but Adrián Morejón walked two in the eighth, necessitating Mason Miller to be called on for a five-out save in his first game action since Monday.
He struck out two to strand Morejón’s runners, but Griffin Conine yanked a one-out, 102.1 mph, down-and-in fastball over the wall in right to hand the Padres’ All-Star closer his third blown save.
But the Padres aren’t flinching much lately.
Morgan struck out two, intentionally walked a batter and then leapt off the mound after stranding both runners on a fly ball that Merrill tracked down to give Salas the chance to win it in the bottom of the 10th.
Like the exclamation he dropped on live TV, the newest Padres rookie couldn’t wait to show he’s ready for the stage this month and maybe next.
“That’s an opportunity everyone dreams for, and thank God I was ready for it today,” Salas said. “I was given the opportunity thanks to the staff and (Padres manager Craig Stammen) and everyone here pulling for me, giving me the confidence to go out there and kind of have that kind of at-bat and have those kind of results.
“So it’s been huge.”