SF Giants drop series finale against San Diego Padres, 5-2
The SF Giants lost their game against the San Diego Padres 5-2 Wednesday evening, falling to 78-81, formally booting them out of the Wild Card race; though they had only been in it on technicality. They sit firmly in fourth place in the NL West behind the Padres.
Sean Manaea took the mound for the Giants, making his fourth start in the month of September, and having another very strong outing. He threw six innings, allowing six hits and two runs, and striking out eight. Despite that, the same story rang true: the Giants' meager offense failed to score repeatedly, giving the Padres the opportunity to come back from behind to tie twice.
Thairo Estrada put the Giants on the board first in the second inning with a towering solo home run to left center field. For several innings, that would remain the Giants offense; they didn't even earn another baserunner until Joc Pederson walked in the fourth inning.
The Padres, on the other hand, threatened with several baserunners but wouldn't see a run score until the fifth inning, when José Azócar hit a leadoff double and Brett Sullivan hit a fluke bunt to reach first safely, advancing Azócar to third. With no outs and two on, Xander Bogaerts hit a sacrifice fly to bat in Azócar, putting the game at 1-1.
The Giants followed up in the bottom of the fifth with a double from Michael Conforto and an RBI single from rookie Tyler Fitzgerald. Shortly after his single, Fitzgerald also stole his first Major league base.
But as the Giants should have learned from this long season of ground out games, one-run leads are always precarious. In the top of the seventh, Manaea took the mound, surprising considering his already high pitch count, and gave up a leadoff solo homer to Garrett Cooper to put the game back at a tie, 2-2.
Neither team would score again through the ninth inning, sending the game into extras, when Bogaerts' struck again, hitting a sacrifice fly off John Brebbia to score the ghost runner Trent Grisham from third. Grisham had reached third on a groundout from Sullivan. The Giants looked to be out of trouble from more than a one-run deficit when top prospect Marco Luciano cleanly fielded but wildly released a routine groundball from Fernando Tatis Jr. to first baseman LaMonte Wade Jr., who had no opportunity to catch it.
The Giants then chose to intentionally walk Juan Soto to have Manny Machado face John Brebbia. During Machado's at bat, both Soto and Tatis Jr. were able to advance on an attempted throwout by catcher Patrick Bailey, when his throw went clean into the outfield. With runners on second and third and two outs, Machado hit a bloop single between three fielders to score both runners and the Padres went up 5-2.
The Giants, who normally are incredibly successful in extra inning games, failed to score any runners against Tom Cosgrove. Though the game technically had close to no meaning, as Wild Card chances were out of their control altogether, this loss puts them formally out of contention for a winning season. With a sweep of the Dodgers, the best they can achieve is a .500 season, like in 2022. Their series against Los Angeles begins Friday evening.
