Padres find ways to do just enough, take series from Angels
ANAHEIM - The Padres got away with a lot and took advantage of enough of the few opportunities they were given on Sunday.
In the biggest moments of a game that was tense throughout, the difference in a 2-1 victory over the Angels was the fill-in heroics by seldom-used outfielder Bryce Johnson and rookie reliever Bradgley Rodriguez.
"Another team win," manager Craig Stammen said. "… We’re just getting contributions from everybody in the whole entire roster - from guys in the bullpen, the guys on the bench that are in the starting lineup. We're just moving pieces around, and they’re all coming through, making us all look really good, that we’re making good decisions. We've got good players, and they’re doing the right things."
The Padres scored once in the fourth inning on a pair of singles and a stolen base and once in the seventh on a pair of walks and Johnson's single.
Stammen had to try a different combination to get the lead to Mason Miller, as high-leverage relievers Jason Adam and Adrian Morejón threw a bunch of pitches less than 24 hours earlier while helping close out Saturday's 4-1 victory.
Stammen was compelled to turn to his bullpen at the start of the sixth inning, too, after Michael King walked four and hit a batter while laboring through five scoreless innings.
Ron Marinaccio made it through the sixth despite walking two batters and having a runner at second with one out.
The Angels finally capitalized on their seventh at-bat with a runner in scoring position after Josh Lowe doubled against Kyle Hart to start the seventh inning.
A hit batter and sacrifice bunt followed, and Rodriguez replaced Hart with runners at second and third.
A groundout by Zach Neto scored Lowe before Mike Trout was intentionally walked, and Rodriguez ended the inning by getting Nolan Schanuel on a fly ball to center field.
The 22-year-old rookie right-hander then breezed through a 1-2-3 eighth inning, striking out cleanup hitter Jorge Soler, getting a popup from Yoan Moncada and striking out Jo Adell.
"I came in there and got the job done," Rodriguez said through interpreter Jorge Merlos. "And (Miller) sealed the victory there."
Miller retired the Angels in order to lock down his eighth save, the Padres' 13th victory in their past 15 games and their fifth consecutive series win.
"It’s expectations on the group as a whole," Miller said of the Padres' bullpen. "Kind of pitching up to those expectations, no matter who you are and the roles you’re in. And we’re a good team. We play a lot of close games, so we’re gonna rely on every single guy down there in a lot of different situations."
King allowed just one hit and lowered his ERA to 2.38, sixth best in the National League, but he summed up his day as a “grind.” Of his 105 pitches, 63 (60%) were strikes. He was ahead 0-1 against just eight of the 20 batters he faced and went to three balls against half of the first 14 Angels to face him.
"I had zero sinker command,” King said. “… I wish I was able to go further. But happy to at least be with the team at a place where we can win the game."
King was helped in the first inning when he picked off Schanuel on an ill-advised steal attempt and was aided by Luis Campusano throwing out Neto as he tried to steal second base in the fourth inning.
That eliminated two of the four batters King walked. And the two other times the Angels got runners in scoring position against him, King was able to do what he often does, locking in when men are on.
King entered the game allowing a .467 on-base percentage with the bases empty and a .170 OBP with men on. Opponents were batting .097 with runners in scoring position. The Angels were hitless in four at-bats against King with runners at second and/or third.
The Padres were not much better, going 2-for-8 with runners in scoring position.
Angels rookie Walbert Ureña, a hard-throwing sinkerballer who routinely reached 100 mph while making his first big-league start, worked into the seventh inning having allowed just one run. That is when he issued his first two walks, which ended his day.
His quality start was the MLB-high 12th thrown against the Padres this season.
Ureña retired the first eight batters he faced before Johnson's double with two outs in the third inning.
It was in the fourth that the Padres briefly got to Ureña when Fernando Tatis Jr. lined the first pitch of the inning into right field for a single, stole second and scored on Xander Bogaerts' two-out single grounded through the middle of the infield.
Ureña, who made two relief appearances for the Angels at the beginning of the season before building up his pitch count in a pair of Triple-A starts, retired the Padres in order in the fifth and sixth and was at just 79 pitches when he walked Bogaerts and Sheets on nine pitches to start the seventh.
After Angels reliever Sam Bachman got a pop-out by Miguel Andujar and stuck out pinch-hitter Jake Cronenworth, Johnson came to the plate. The switch-hitter, batting from the left side, took a strike and then fouled off two pitches before sending a changeup on the outer third of the plate the other way through the left side of the infield for a single to drive in Bogaerts.
"No joke, when I walked to the plate, I was like, ‘How can I get this AB to Ramón (Leaureano)?'” Johnson said. "He's our hottest hitter right now, so my mindset was, ‘Can I work a walk, anything?' I was looking maybe to … just to pass the baton. It ended up getting to two strikes. And then I’m just like, ‘Let’s just battle,’ put the ball in play. And good things happened."
His hit was the Padres' fifth and final one. And Sunday was the first time in six games this season the Padres won when having five or fewer hits.
"It’s good to see in games when it’s not everybody, it’s somebody else stepping up,” Jackson Merrill said. "Like B.J. today. Unreal."
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This story was originally published April 19, 2026 at 4:51 PM.