The Giants came into Sunday with the chance to obtain a hard-earned series split against the Padres. Instead, they’re still left wondering how to conquer their San Diego woes.
After playing 23 innings over the previous two days, the Giants needed starter Ty Blach to eat innings. Blach delivered in that aspect, throwing seven innings on the afternoon. The left-hander locked down the Padres in innings one through three and five through seven. However, a four-run fourth led San Diego to a 5-2 win over the Giants on Sunday.
“Things just unraveled,” manager Bruce Bochy said following the game. “It got away from him there, left some pitches up there in the fourth [inning].”
Padres’ first baseman Wil Myers continued his dominance at AT&T Park with a solo home run in the top of the first inning to give the Padres an early 1-0 lead. Myers has hit five home-runs at AT&T Park this season. It’s all the more impressive when considering that no Giants player has hit more than three at their home ballpark.
“He’s always battled me,” Blach said on Myers. “He put a good swing on a good pitch.”
The Giants’ offense picked up Blach in the bottom of the first. Denard Span continued his hot week at the plate, leading off with a double. With two outs, catcher Buster Posey fought off a high fastball for a base hit into right field that brought home Span to tie the game at one.
Myers was the only Padre to reach base in the first 11 batters that Blach faced, as the 26-year-old was strong in the early going. After retiring Carlos Asuaje to lead off the fourth inning, though, the floodgates opened for the Padres. A walk to Myers, followed by three straight doubles from Hunter Renfroe, Jabari Blash, and Hector Sanchez, followed up by a single from Cory Spangenberg scored four runs for the Padres to take a 5-1 lead.
Sanchez has torched the Giants in recent weeks, and his one-out double marked his third extra base hit of the series. Though the former Giants’ catcher entered the day with a .238 average, he’s hitting over .400 liftetime against his old club.
Blach recovered nicely, holding the Padres scoreless in innings five, six and seven. However, as was the case with left-hander Matt Moore on Saturday, one bad inning skewed Blach’s outing on the mound. But while Moore came away with the no decision in the Giants extra-inning win, the four-run fourth resulted in the loss for Blach.
“It’s frustrating when you’re rolling and can’t make adjustments quick enough and they take advantage in just a couple of pitches,” Blach said. “You look up and they’ve scored several runs.”
The Giants offense didn’t give Blach much more help after that first inning run. A Miguel Gomez double – the first of his career – followed up by a Gorkys Hernandez single cut the deficit to 5-2 in the bottom of the fourth. That would be all the offense the Giants got on Padres starter Dinelson Lamet, however, who entered the contest with an abysmal 6.49 ERA.
“[Lamet] had a six ERA and the heart of our order (Belt, Posey, Crawford, Pence) went 1-for-16,” Bochy said. “That’s not going to work.”
The Giants’ struggles against the Padres this season continue. After losing the first two games of the series on Thursday and Friday, the Giants won in 12 innings on Saturday to give them a chance to split the series with a win on Sunday. With the loss, however, the Padres have now won their third straight series over the Giants and can no longer lose the season series as they won their ninth game against San Francisco this year. Dating back to the 2016 All-Star break, the Giants have lost 17 of 23 to San Diego.
“Some things are hard to explain,” Bochy said. “I wish I could, but for some reason our starters just have not had very many good starts against these guys.”
“The bottom line is we just haven’t played very well against them.”
The Giants will close out their 10-game homestand with a three game series against the Pittsburgh Pirates beginning on Monday, and will have to make up ground against other clubs if they hope to eventually catch the Padres to avoid an embarrassing last place finish in the National League West.