The Giants are fighting, but they can’t seem to hold on.
That was the case Tuesday night when the Giants overcame a 4-1 deficit in the ninth inning, only to lose in extras on a Manny Machado three-run bomb.
It was also the case on Wednesday, when the Giants blew two separate leads, including an early 4-0 advantage, and somehow managed to get blown out 13-7 by the Padres in the series rubber match.
On two separate occasions San Francisco scored three runs in a frame, and both times San Diego answered and then some, responding in the bottom half of the third and sixth innings with six and seven runs respectively. For those counting at home, that accounts for all the runs the Padres scored on Wednesday.
It was a brutal way to lose a series against one of the teams the Giants are chasing for the third and final wild card spot, and was yet another example that SF might not be able to match the firepower of the current playoff teams.
Speaking of firepower, the Giants’ pitching staff had no answer for the Padres who tagged them for 16 hits, including seven straight in the sixth inning. Reliever Alex Young was basically the only Giants pitcher that wasn’t completely shelled, calming the game down with two and a third scoreless innings after starter Jakob Junis was chased.
Junis didn’t look dialed in to start the game but was able to get out of a first inning jam after putting two runners in scoring position with one out.
The escape act allowed the Giants to take the lead in the second, when J.D. Davis again showed off his opposite field power, blasting a 2-2 sinker over the right field wall. It’s the third home run from Davis in just his seventh appearance since being acquired at the deadline.
The Giants added a few more in the third inning, thanks in large part to a two-run gaffe in right field by Juan Soto. With two men on, Austin Slater smacked a liner to right field. As Soto charged, he decided to try and casually field the ball on one hop, but completely whiffed as ball bounced over his glove and rolled towards the wall. Slater ended up on third, and would score shortly after on a Wilmer Flores RBI single.
It looked like it might be the Giants’ day. In addition to the error, two of the three hits in the inning were bloop singles. Luis Gonzalez also reached base when what looked like a 3-2 strikeout pitch was called a ball.
After throwing just six pitches in the first, Padres starter Sean Manaea had thrown 55 through three.
As tough as those two innings were for Manaea, things were worse for Junis in the third. After retiring the side in order with two strikeouts in the second, the right hander gave up five runs on five hits before recording an out. After walking the No. 9 hitter to start the inning, Junis continually left pitches up to heart of the Padres order, and was probably lucky to have not given up a grand slam to Manny Machado.
Once the Padres tied it, Junis gave up another run, a Trent Grisham RBI single, before being pulled from the game. Another run would score on a fielder’s choice after Young took the hill. When the dust settled, the Giants trailed 6-4, with all the runs earned by Junis.
It’s back-to-back rough outings for the fill-in fifth starter. Junis gave up three runs in three and two-thirds innings in his last start on Aug. 4 vs. the Dodgers.
There was a scare in the fifth inning, when Brandon Belt took a pitch off the right thumb. Belt, whose season was cut short after being hit in the left thumb at the tail end of 2021, stayed in the game and seemed okay.
The good fortune continued in the sixth when the Padres gifted the Giants a couple runs. First reliever Nabil Crismatt hit Davis to open the inning. The mistake would lead to a run, after a Mike Yastrzemski double and Thairo Estrada sac fly. 6-5 Padres.
Then second baseman Jake Cronenworth allowed the Giants to tie the game with a throwing error to first, badly missing the covering Crismatt. Yastrzemski would score from second.
SF would take the lead later in the inning on a Joc Pederson pinch-hit single. It was an impressive piece of hitting by the struggling Pederson, who went with the outside location and smacked the ball to shallow left field.
Once again, the lead would not last. Once again it was the heart of the Padres order that would do the damage in the bottom half of the inning.
Machado continued to be a thorn in the Giants’ side, getting the two-out rally started with a single (his third hit of the day) on a full count. Bell followed with another single. Then on a 1-2 count, Brandon Drury demolished a Yunior Marte slider up, a ball that got out so fast you’d have missed it if you blinked. Kim Ha-seong added an insurance RBI, chasing Marte who gave up four runs in the inning, all with two-outs. The Giants comeback in the top half was officially moot.
The collapse continued as it so often has this season with poor defense, when a Wilmer Flores throw to first base was too slow to get Grisham on an infield grounder, and was compounded when Brandon Belt badly skied his throw to home plate, allowing Kim to score. The game was blown open with an Austin Nola two-run jack off Jarlin Garcia, as the two-out rally ballooned to seven runs.
The Giants are now 7.5 games behind the Padres for the final wild card spot.