Padres 5, Giants 2: Hector Sanchez will not be stopped

In today’s series finale, two fatigued teams met after two extra-inning games left both rosters looking a little thin. Dinelson Lamet squared off against Ty Blach

Wil Myers decided early on that he didn’t feel like waiting for some scoring, and I think he was tired of the Hector Sanchez love. In the top of the first, the hot-swinging slugger worked a full count and then sent a Ty Blach changeup 450+ feet into the cheap seats for his third homer in three days:

Oh, this little nugget was pretty neat to see:

The Giants came right back though, as Denard Span led off with a double and Buster Posey hit a chin-high fastball into rightfield to tie it up. The score remained 1-1 through three innings, and then the Padres had some fun. Wil Myers started things off in the top of the fourth with a walk, and he was followed by three consecutive doubles from Hunter Renfroe, Jabari Blash, and Hector Sanchez. Cory Spangenberg broke the streak with a single, but that’s all good because he helped the Padres push the lead to 5-1. The Giants once again responded in the bottom of the fourth, as Miguel Gomez hit a double and then he was driven home by a Gorkys Hernandez single. The score through four complete innings was 5-2.

With a heavily taxed bullpen, rookie starter Dinelson Lamet fell one out shy of his career high of seven innings pitched, getting pulled with one out in the sixth. While his command wasn’t fully on point, he kept the ball out of the middle of the zone and kept the damage to a minimum. His final line included eight hits, one walk, six strikeouts, and two earned runs in 6-2/3 innings of work. Lefty Buddy Baumann came in to get the final out of the sixth. Jabari Blash made it interesting by dropping a fairly mundane fly ball. Thank goodness Allen Cordoba had his back, firing a strike to third base to nail Eduardo Nunez.

Ty Blach matched Lamet’s seven innings, giving up five earned runs on eight hits plus a walk. He was relieved by Kyle Crick, who pitched a clean inning, and Crick was relieved by Cody Gearrin to pitch the ninth. Gearrin got into a little bit of trouble, allowing two baserunners, but his frisbee slider baffled Wil Myers and Hunter Renfroe to escape the jam.

Brad Hand got a chance to log a save, entering the ninth with the Padres still up 5-2. He whiffed Miguel Gomez with that ridiculous slider. Gorkys Hernandez grounded out to short, bringing up yesterday’s hero, Nick Hundley. Hundley was no hero today, grounding out to Hand, who flipped the ball to first and the book on this game was closed.

The Padres gave the Giants one bad inning and that was enough to get the W. With a final score of 5-2, the visitors also claimed the series win at 3-1, and are now up on the season series against the Giants at 5-2. The team now heads home to host a nine-game, ten-day homestand against the New York Mets, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Minnesota Twins.