The Aporia · Cronenworth homers twice, Padres beat Marlins 7-3 to lower wild-card magic number to 2

Cronenworth homers twice, Padres beat Marlins 7-3 to lower wild-card magic number to 2

Read the original at Toronto Star ↗

Cite

APA MLA Chicago

Wilson, B. (2026, September 21). Cronenworth homers twice, Padres beat Marlins 7-3 to lower wild-card magic number to 2. Toronto Star. https://www.thestar.com/sports/baseball/cronenworth-homers-twice-padres-beat-marlins-7-3-to-lower-wild-card-magic-number-to-2/article_92f94c78-d097-5a5d-bd72-12eca19277ca.html

Dated when The Aporia collected the article, usually within hours of publication. Check the original for its exact date and byline.

Quick Summary

Jake Cronenworth hit two home runs and drove in five runs as the San Diego Padres defeated the Miami Marlins 7-3 on Sunday, reducing their magic number to clinch a wild-card spot to two. The victory extended San Diego's winning streak to 13 out of 14 games and tied them with Chicago Cubs at 87-69 for the top wild-card position, although Chicago holds the tiebreaker. Fernando Tatis Jr. also contributed with his 25th home run of the season.

Written by AI on 2026-09-21, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

Jake Cronenworth hit two two-run home runs and drove in five runs as the San Diego Padres beat the Miami Marlins 7-3 on Sunday. This victory reduced San Diego's magic number to clinch a wild-card spot to just 2, putting them closer to securing their third consecutive postseason berth. Fernando Tatis Jr. also hit his 25th home run of the season for the Padres, who have won 13 out of their last 14 games and swept the Marlins twice this year. The Padres are tied with the Chicago Cubs at 87-69 for the top wild-card spot but Chicago holds the tiebreaker due to head-to-head record. Philadelphia is one game behind in the race.

Written for “Padres Win Lower Wild Card Number” on 2026-11-02, grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 0% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.

Marlins prevent Cubs from clinching a playoff spot again with a 3-2 victory Different event

Toronto Star

Hedges 0 of 13 claims Outlet record 64/100

“The articles describe different games between different teams on separate dates.”

How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

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Claims extracted

sentences that state something as happening or true

Uncertain

0 of 18 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")

Leaning

not political

takes no side on a contested political question

Publisher signals

64/100

Toronto Star's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.

Outlets on this story

Sports

Same framing elsewhere

articles that frame the event the way this one does

Analyzed 2026-09-21 · how these are computed

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Publisher

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Who wrote this

Bernie Wilson

9 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction

🔮 The Padres struggled so much during the first half that fans wondered if Preller would trade fireballing closer Mason Miller.

2026-10-08 · assertive framing · Tatis, Padres eliminated from postseason by top-seeded Brewers in 4 games

🔮 The Brewers ran their postseason losing streak away from home to 12 games dating to 2018 when they couldn’t close out the San Diego Padres on Tuesday night, losing 4-3 in Game 3 of their National League Division Series.

2026-10-07 · assertive framing · Brewers can't close out Padres, lose 4-3 to run postseason road skid to record-tying 12 games

🔮 The fourth-seeded Padres will host every game in the best-of-three series against the fifth-seeded Cubs.

2026-09-29 · assertive framing · Padres hope to ride energy from loud home crowd when they host Cubs in NL Wild Card Series

🔮 The San Diego Padres have earned a wild-card rematch with the Chicago Cubs, and this time it will be at home in packed and raucous Petco Park.

2026-09-27 · assertive framing · Padres will have home-field advantage in wild-card rematch with Cubs

🔮 San Diego will host every game in a best-of-three Wild Card Series against the fifth-seeded Chicago Cubs beginning Tuesday.

2026-09-27 · assertive framing · Machado homers as Padres beat D-backs 10-7 to clinch home field in wild-card round vs Cubs

🔮 The Padres will go with RHP Walker Buehler (9-6, 4.56 ERA).

2026-09-26 · assertive framing · Arenado, Perdomo lead Diamondbacks over Padres 11-4 to stay alive in wild-card hunt

🔮 The top wild-card team will host a best-of-three opening series.

2026-09-21 · assertive framing · Cronenworth homers twice, Padres beat Marlins 7-3 to lower wild-card magic number to 2

🔮 Fernando Tatis Jr. tied it at 5 with a solo homer leading off the fourth off Eury Pérez for the Padres, who on Sunday will go for their second sweep of the Marlins this season.

2026-09-20 · assertive framing · Rookie Salas has walk-off single in 10th as Padres beat Marlins 7-6, reduce magic number to 3

🔮 Although Chicago, Philadelphia and San Diego are even at 85-69 for the three NL wild cards, the Padres would lose tiebreakers against the Cubs and Phillies in the race for the No. 1 spot and the right to host an opening round.

2026-09-19 · assertive framing · Ty France's 3-run homer helps Padres to 8-2 win over Marlins and into tie for top NL wild-card spot

Also by Bernie Wilson

Tatis, Padres eliminated from postseason by top-seeded Brewers in 4 games

2026-10-08 · Toronto Star

Brewers can't close out Padres, lose 4-3 to run postseason road skid to record-tying 12 games

2026-10-07 · Toronto Star

Padres hope to ride energy from loud home crowd when they host Cubs in NL Wild Card Series

2026-09-29 · Toronto Star

Padres will have home-field advantage in wild-card rematch with Cubs

2026-09-27 · Toronto Star

Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.

All 9 articles by Bernie Wilson →

Topics

Chicago Cubs Marlins Padres the San Diego Padres

Subjects

Padres ORG · 5× Chicago GPE · 2× Cronenworth PERSON · 2× Cubs ORG · 2× Marlins ORG · 2× Fernando Tatis Jr. PERSON · 1× Jake Cronenworth PERSON · 1× San Diego GPE · 1× the Miami Marlins ORG · 1× the San Diego Padres ORG · 1×

Narrative

Jake Cronenworth hit a pair of two-run homers and drove in five runs for the San Diego Padres, who beat the Miami Marlins 7-3 on Sunday to move closer to clinching their third straight postseason berth.

framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-09-21

🔮 The top wild-card team will host a best-of-three opening series.

2026-09-21 · Toronto Star

Cronenworth homers twice, Padres beat Marlins 7-3 to lower wild-card magic number to 2 · assertive framing

Claims (18 extracted, 0 hedged)

who → hit → berth

Fernando Tatis Jr. hit his 25th homer for the Padres, who won for the 13th time in 14 games and swept the Marlins for the second time this season. asserted

who → hit → time

San Diego reduced its magic number to two for earning a wild-card spot. asserted

Diego → reduce → spot

The Padres and Cubs remain tied at 87-69 for the top wild-card spot with six games to go, although Chicago holds the tiebreaker. asserted

Chicago → remain → tiebreaker

Philadelphia stayed one game back. asserted

Philadelphia → stay → ?

The top wild-card team will host a best-of-three opening series. asserted

team → host → series

The Cubs beat the Padres 2-1 in the wild-card round last year in Chicago. asserted

Cubs → beat → Chicago

Cronenworth lofted a two-run shot into the home run porch in the right-field corner off Sandy Alcantara (13-11) with two outs in the second. asserted

Cronenworth → loft → second

He connected again to right off Bradley Blalock with two outs in the eighth, his seventh. asserted

He → connect → eighth

Walker Buehler took a one-hitter and a 4-0 lead into the seventh before allowing Javier Sanoja’s three-run homer to left with two outs, his 10th. asserted

Buehler → take → outs

That was it for Buehler (9-6), who allowed three runs and three hits while striking out six and walking two in a season-high 6 2/3 innings. asserted

who → allow → innings

He retired 11 straight at one point. asserted

He → retire → point

Tatis homered into the Padres bullpen in left-center off Blalock leading off the seventh. asserted

Tatis → homer → seventh

It’s his fourth career 25-homer season. asserted

It → ’ → ?

Cronenworth and Samad Taylor hit consecutive RBI singles in the fourth. asserted

Cronenworth → hit → fourth

Alcantara allowed four runs and eight hits in six innings, struck out three and walked one. asserted

Alcantara → allow → one

Up next Marlins RHP Janson Junk (6-9, 4.50 ERA) is scheduled to start Tuesday night in the opener of a three-game series at the Chicago Cubs. asserted

Junk → schedule → Cubs

The Padres haven’t named a starter for Tuesday night’s series opener at the Los Angeles Dodgers. asserted

Padres → name → Dodgers