Giants 5, Padres 4: Final happy flight slips away

The Padres came out swinging against Johnny Cueto today, scoring four runs on twelve hits and chasing him from the game after five. All but one of the starting Friars had a hit, with four of them getting extra bases, including Luis Perdomo’s record-setting triple. Unfortunately, Perdomo didn’t pitch as well as he hit. He held on for seven innings, but a rough fourth inning tied the game and sent him home without a decision.

Cueto looked lost right away, as the Padres led off the game with a pair of doubles and a pair of singles to plate two runs before an out was even recorded. Buster Posey fired back in the second with a leadoff double, scoring on two productive outs from his teammates. Hunter Renfroe answered that run in the third when he put some padding on his new franchise record with a ballistic missile to left.

Luis Perdomo led off the fourth with his record-tying triple, and Travis Jankowski sent him home with an infield single to put the Friars up by three. After that, things went south. Denard Span led off the bottom half of the inning with a single and then swiped second. A wild pitch put Span on third and walked Posey, setting up an RBI double for Brandon Crawford. A single from Jarret Parker narrowed the lead to one, and then our old friend Nick Hundley knocked in the tying run.

That’s the way things stood until the bottom of the ninth inning, when Pablo Sandoval (yes, that Pablo Sandoval) hit a home run off Phil Maton to end the game and the season.

The Padres next game will be next spring in Peoria.