Padres 12, Giants 9: Hector Sanchez, you’re our hero

After last night’s 5-2 show of power, the San Francisco Giants were surely looking for some revenge. They jumped out to an early lead, but the Padres’ offense came alive for some extended scoring. A late comeback sent the game into extra innings, and the seagulls were clearly not pleased with that. The Padres got the last laugh, tacking on some last-moment runs to take the game and the seagulls finally got to get at them tasty garlic fries.

Trevor Cahill did his trade value no favors in the first inning, as he put the team in a four-run hole right off the bat. His defense didn’t do him many favors, but Cahill’s stuff wasn’t sharp and his command wasn’t on in this game. Denard Span led the game off with a double. A wild pitch gave him third base, and Brandon Belt singled him in. Buster Posey drew a walk, putting runners on first and second for Brandon Crawford. Crawford hit a single through the right side of the infield, bringing Belt around to score, and a wild throw from Renfroe to third base let Posey score and put Crawford on second. Hunter Pence doubled Crawford in for the fourth run of the inning. At the end of the first frame, the Giants let 4-0.

The Padres got off the schneide in the third inning thanks to a Franchy Cordero leadoff triple, then Cahill helped his own cause with a ground-out to shortstop. The Giants scored in the bottom of the third thanks to another walk, this time to Brandon Belt, who made it to second base on a fielder’s choice. A single from Hunter Pence that deflected off Cahill into centerfield, giving Belt enough time to score from second. The Padres struck back in the top of the fourth, as former Giant catcher Hector Sanchez did this:

Ain’t that pretty? Well, it got kinda ugly in the bottom of the fourth. Gorkys (Corky’s?) Hernandez led off the inning with an infield single, and he went to second on a Jeff Samardzjia sacrifice bunt in proper Bruce Bochy fashion. Denard Span reached on a fielder’s choice as Trevor Cahill fielded a come-backer and threw a seed to shortstop Erick Aybar, who couldn’t handle the throw and was charged with an error on the play, who threw to third baseman Cory Spangenberg, who couldn’t get a tag down. The defensive miscues left runners on first and third. Cahill tried to take matters into his own hands by getting Eduardo Nunez to hit a liner right back to him, which Cahill caught on the fly like a boss, but Cahill would let Hernandez score on another wild pitch. Craig Stammen came in to close out the inning, and Cahill’s final line was ugly: 3-2/3 innings pitched, five earned runs on seven hits and four walks. Not what the front office would want potential trade partners to see. After four full frames, the Giants led 6-2.

The Padres finally started to take control in the top of the fifth, as they plated three runs. Matt Szczur led off with a double, and Jose Pirela singled to drive Szczur in. Carlos Asuaje singled and got to second as Wil Myers got on base with a fielder’s choice that sadly resulted in Jose Pirela getting tagged out at home. Hector Sanchez did his Giant-killer thing again, doubling to leftfield, scoring Asuaje and putting Myers on third base. Cory Spangenberg knocked Myers in on a groundout to second base, cutting the deficit to just one run.

The Padres kept chipping away in the sixth, as reliever Craig Stammen got a rare plate appearance and drew a walk. A Matt Szczur single moved Stammen to third, and Carlos Asuaje hit a single to rightfield that plated Stammen to tie the game. In the seventh, Wil Myers ran into a pitch and deposited it into the leftfield bleachers to put the Padres up 7-6. Here’s the play en Español:

The Padres kept scoring in the eighth as Szczur led off with a triple, putting him a homer shy of the cycle. Jose Pirela hit a liner into rightfield that Hunter Pence appeared for a moment to have been caught by Hunter Pence, but his snow-cone grip on the ball failed him and Pirela raced around for a triple of his own, scoring Szczur. Carlos Asuaje followed with a single to plate Pirela. By the middle of the eighth inning, the score was 9-6 and all was good in Padre land.

Brandon Maurer came on with a three-run lead to earn a save. He started off strong enough with a groundout and a flyout to Nunez and Belt, notching two quick outs. Then he issued a walk to Buster Posey, who took second on defensive indifference and scored on a Brandon Crawford single. Whatevs, it’s still a two-run lead. Hold up. Connor Gillespie pulled another miracle moment out of his hoo-hah with a dinger to rightfield. CRAP. Maurer got the third out, but three earned runs and a blown save had the game going into extra frames, tied 9-9 after nine innings of regulation baseball.

The Padres got nowhere in the top of the tenth. Phil Maton pitched a 1-2-3 inning, capped off by catching a comebacker like a boss and looking bored as he walked off the mound. Kid has ice water in his veins. In the top of the eleventh, Hunter Renfroe singled off of new reliever George Kontos, and Erick Aybar worked a hard-fought walk. Luis Torrens dropped down a textbook sacrifice bunt to move the runners over, and Matt Szczur hit a single into leftfield to bring Renfroe home, putting the Padres up 10-9. Jose Pirela tacked on another run with a single up the middle, scoring Aybar and moving Szczur over to third, and it was 11-9. A double switch brought Kyle Crick to the mound to face Carlos Asuaje, who singled to right and brought Matt Szczur, score now 12-9. Crick got Wil Myers out to apply a tourniquet to the bleeding, but the Giants once again needed three runs before logging three outs to keep this thing going.

Phil Maton came back out for the bottom of the 12th and picked right back up with the high heat. He got Nunez out on a sharp grounder that Wil Myers picked nicely, then Brandon Belt lined out to center as the clock struck midnight, and right on time the Giants’ orange jerseys turned into pumpkins as Buster Posey grounded out to third to end the game. It wasn’t pretty, but the Giants lost, and that’s what really matters.

Three Padres were a hit short of the cycle in this game. Jose Pirela and Matt Szczur needed homers, and Hector Sanchez needed a triple. The offense put together 16 hits and hung five earned runs on starter Jeff Samardzjia plus three more on Hunter Srtickland and one on Cody Gearrin. After Trevor Cahill gave up six runs (five earned), a parade of relievers had scoreless appearances tonight: Craig Stammen, Ryan Buchter, Kirby Yates, Brad Hand, and Phil Maton. Unfortunately, Brandon Maurer couldn’t get it done and his trade value took a similar hit to Cahill’s.

These guys will be back at it tomorrow for a 1:05 start. The Padres lead the series 2-0 with two more games to play. The projected starters are Luis Perdomo and lefty Matt Moore. The kids will likely be tired after a long game that ran late into the night, but the Giants are older and have more insurance but I can tell you that a thirtysomething body doesn’t recover like a twentysomething body. Yeah, the tank is parked for the moment, but it’s always sweet to beat the Giants!