The Padres -- and Gavin Sheets, specifically -- are making a habit out of this.
Sheets brought his team out of the grave Wednesday against the Brewers, rocketing a three-run homer to right-center field in the top of the ninth inning to take the lead and later the win. The Padres had been held scoreless and were down to their final out before Sheets’ heroics.
Holy. Sheets. As Padres’ play-by-play man Don Orsillo so aptly put it.
There have only been four total three-run, go-ahead homers in the ninth inning in MLB this season, with Andrew Benintendi of the White Sox having the only non-Sheets instance. Coincidentally, it came on April 23 against the Diamondbacks, the same day Sheets hit his second against the Rockies.
“The biggest thing, when [Xander Bogaerts] was up, is just telling myself I wanted that at-bat,” Sheets said Wednesday. “Just continue to say, ‘I want this at-bat, I want this at-bat.’
“I want the moment.”
And boy, has the moment found him this year. Sheets is now the first Padre since B.J. Upton in 2016 to hit three go-ahead home runs in the ninth inning or later in a single season.