Sean Hjelle carries SF Giants bullpen in 4-2 victory over Padres
The SF Giants extended their winning streak to 10 games on Wednesday night with a 4-1 victory over the San Diego Padres. It is the team's first double-digit winning streak since 2004 when they won 10 games from May 20-31 under manager Felipe Alou. The odds seemed stacked against the Giants on Wednesday, with a bullpen game lined up against former Cy Young award winner Yu Darvish, but they have seemingly been at their best over the past two weeks in those situations.
SF Giants DH Joc Pederson hits an RBI single at Oracle Park on June 21, 2023.
Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
Funky right-hander Ryan Walker started the game for the Giants and struggled to find the strike zone in his lone inning of work. He walked Fernando Tatís Jr. on four pitches to start the game and issued another free pass to Manny Machado two batters later. However, in between his walks, Walker induced a double play from Juan Soto to help him escape the inning unscathed.
With Walker's job done, Sean Hjelle (Giants preseason #28 prospect) entered in the top of the second inning and proceeded to have his most successful prolonged big-league outing of the season. After Keaton Winn (Giants preseason #18 prospect) and Tristan Beck (Giants preseason #19 prospect) delivered excellent bulk outings in the first two games of the series, it was Hjelle's turn among the young arms to carry the staff.
While Hjelle allowed an infield single, walk, double, and walk to lead off each of his respective innings, but only allowed one other baserunner. In the end, he struck out five across four shutout innings of work. It was Hjelle's first multi-inning outing of the season without allowing a run.
The Giants finally broke through against Darvish in the bottom of the fifth. Center fielder Luis Matos (Giants preseason #4 prospect) led off the inning with his second infield hit of the day and quickly advanced into scoring position with a stolen base. A single by catcher Blake Sabol (Giants preseason #33 prospect) and a walk to first baseman David Villar loaded the bases with nobody out.
Shortstop Brandon Crawford flew out to deep left field, scoring Matos on a sacrifice fly. Darvish struck out second baseman Casey Schmitt (Giants preseason #3 prospect) for the second out of the inning but surrendered a single to designated hitter Joc Pederson.
Giants third-base coach Mark Hallberg decided to test Padres star right fielder Fernando Tatís. It looked like a horrible decision at first. Tatís delivered a seed to catcher Gary Sánchez behind the plate, who tagged Sabol out well in front of home plate.
Except that was not the end of the inning.
The Giants challenged the call, arguing Sánchez had blocked the plate. He had, even if that was far from the intended use of the "Buster Posey rule," MLB replay crews have been treating the issue with an overzealous letter-of-the-law interpretation that worked in the Giants' favor.
Padres manager Bob Melvin was ejected from the game for arguing with the call, but Sabol's run counted, and the inning continued. The Giants capitalized on the extra opportunity, with Mike Yastrzemski and J.D. Davis each lining two-out RBI singles to extend the lead to 4-0.
The rally came with a cost, however. As Yastrzemski ran toward third base on Davis' single, he clearly felt tightness in his leg and was forced to leave the game. The Giants said he left the game with left hamstring tightness.
The four-run rally proved to be more than enough for the rest of the Giants pen. Taylor Rogers worked around a pair of baserunners in a shutout inning. Luke Jackson and Tyler Rogers each surrendered a run on a pair of singles in their innings of work, but that left a 4-2 lead for closer Camilo Doval.
Tranquilo Camilo worked around a one-out single by Ha-Seong Kim in the ninth, recording a pair of strikeouts in the process. He became the second closer in the National League to record 20 saves on the season. After winning the NL reliever of the month in May, Doval has allowed just one earned run across nine innings pitched (nine appearances) in June with six saves in seven opportunities.
Now 42-32 on the season, the SF Giants remained 2.5 games back of the Diamondbacks for the top spot in the National League West. They will go for a sweep in the final game of the series tomorrow afternoon. Southpaw Alex Wood will make the start for San Francisco, facing off against Padres lefty Blake Snell. First pitch at Oracle Park is scheduled for 12:45 PM Pacific.
