Padres hold on to beat Giants for first win of road trip

The Padres began Wednesday night’s game looking a lot like a team that a while back seemed headed for the playoffs.

They finished by surviving, which was both fine and fitting for a group that in the course of losing quite a bit and without much fight the past month has seemed destined for disappointment.

A 9-6 victory over the Giants at Oracle Park kept the Padres a game behind the St. Louis Cardinals in the race for the National League’s final wild-card spot.

“It feels good to be back in the win column,” starting pitcher Joe Musgrove said. “It’s been a while.”

In getting there, the Padres scored three more runs than they had in losing the first five games on this trip. They had 16 hits, their most since July 17 and five more than they had totaled in the previous three games. They scored in four innings for the first time in 23 games.

Yet a chilly night at the Giants’ bayside ballpark got far more tense than it needed to be.

The Padres scored two runs in the first inning and three in the second to take a 5-0 lead. They kept on hitting but stopped scoring for a large chunk of the game.

They had a runner at second base with fewer than two outs in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings and did not score. Meanwhile, the Giants chipped away with single runs in the second, third and sixth innings against Musgrove, who went six innings and got the win.

Jurickson Profar’s two-run homer in the seventh, the Padres’ first home run in four games and their second in the past eight, gave the Padres a four-run cushion.

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It was short-lived, as Craig Stammen surrendered solo homers to Steven Duggar and Brandon Belt in the bottom of the seventh to get the Giants to within two runs again, at 7-5.

The Padres went down in order in the eighth, the only time all night either team did so.

Emilio Pagán entered the game for the Padres and walked the first two batters he faced. That brought the go-ahead run up three times, and Pagán retired Belt, Evan Longoria and Duggar.

After the Padres added two runs in the ninth, Mark Melancon got two quick outs before the Giants scored on two singles and a wild pitch. Melancon got Lamonte Wade Jr. on a groundout to end the game.

The Padres’ first seven runs were scored with two outs.

The early barrage began with Profar’s double at the end of an eight-pitch at-bat, the first time a Padres batter had led off the team’s half of the first inning with a hit since Sept. 5.

Fernando Tatis Jr. followed with an infield single, moving Profar to third. Manny Machado and Eric Hosmer followed with outs, but just when it appeared the inning’s promise would vanish in more ineptitude by a team that entered the game having hit .199 over its previous 29 games, Tommy Pham drew a full-count walk and Adam Frazier placed a two-run double just inside the left-field line.

The three-run third began with Trent Grisham reaching on an error before Musgrove and Profar both flied out to center field. Tatis followed with a single, and Machado doubled down the right-field line to drive in Grisham and send Tatis to third. Eric Hosmer quickly fell behind 1-2, fouled off four pitches, took another ball and then laced a two-RBI single to right field.

Tatis and Frazier both finished with four hits, Machado hit two doubles.

“Up and down the lineup, we were patient, we hit the ball well, we had deep, long at-bats,” manager Jayce Tingler said. “Just overall good game, and it’s nice to get back on track.”