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Christian Friedrich had an incredible night on the mound, giving up just two runs on three hits and three walks in seven plus innings. Unfortunately, Jeff Samardzija had an even better night, shutting out the Padres for seven innings and allowing four hits without giving up a single free pass.
Friedrich carried a no-no into the fourth inning, but it ended when Gorkys Hernandez hit a line drive to left field that Travis Jankowski couldn’t get a handle on. The ball bounced over the fence for a ground rule double, but it didn’t matter as Hernandez was stranded. The real trouble held off until the eighth inning.
Andy Green looked ready to pull his starter in the bottom of the seventh, with Jon Jay in the on deck circle for Friedrich. But the inning ended before Jay could hit, and Green sent his pitcher back to the mound for more. Joe Panik led off the eighth with a line drive to the right field gap. Hunter Renfroe came close to making the grab, but it leapt the fence for another ground rule double. A single from Kelby Tomlinson put runners on the corners with nobody out, and that was the end of Friedrich’s night.
Brad Hand got off to a good start when he took over as he got Eduardo Nuñez to hit a grounder to Ryan Schimpf at third. That froze Panik and set up a double play, but the speedy batter couldn’t be caught at first. The Padres challenged the call, contending that Tomlinson violated the Utley rule, but the New York crew held firm. Angel Pagan followed that with a shallow single that dropped just inside the right field foul line. Renfroe fired a hard throw that might have caught Panik at the plate, but Wil Myers cut it off. One more double from Hunter Pence put the Giants up 2-0 before the inning’s end.
The Friars got one run back in the bottom half of the eighth when Poway kid Alex Dickerson went yard for the tenth time this year. But it was just a solo shot, and the Padres lost the game (and the season series) to San Francisco. Edwin Jackson takes the mound for game two tomorrow at 7:40 PM.