SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle
Flashing a smile nearly as long as his badly needed bat, he skipped onto the field midway through batting practice and warmly greeted Pablo Sandoval, the first teammate in his track. He made a beeline to the batting cage and received a firm handshake from manager Bruce Bochy and a bear hug from hitting coach Carney Lansford.
It was Jesus Guzman to the rescue.
Well, not yet.
The Giants made a long-anticipated move Thursday by promoting their most advanced hitting prospect to the majors, and Bochy said Guzman will be the designated hitter tonight in the interleague opener in Seattle.
First, Guzman appeared in Thursday's ugly 3-2 loss here, grounding into a double play as a pinch-hitter in the seventh and striking out with the bases loaded in the ninth.
The Giants, who lost 2-1 in each of the first two games of the series, were on the verge of returning the favor after Randy Winn's RBI single in the top of the ninth gave the Giants a 2-1 lead and seemed to assure Tim Lincecum's seven solid innings weren't wasted.
But in the bottom of the inning, besieged closer Brian Wilson surrendered two runs, one when he drilled David Eckstein with the bases full and the other on a game-ending single by Giants killer Scott Hairston.
"I'm not going to be perfect," said Wilson, who has a 9.53 ERA, three losses and a blown save in his past six appearances. "Obviously, I've got to do a better job closing games out. I've got to start a streak."
The loss was especially painful because the offense finally executed in the ninth. Sandoval carried out a hit-and-run single and broke up a double-play bid by knocking over Eckstein at second base. Winn followed with his RBI single through a drawn-in infield off Heath Bell, who hadn't surrendered a run in his first 16 outings.
"That's why this was probably harder to take than the first two," Bochy said.
After going 1-for-22 with runners in scoring position the previous two nights, the Giants did zilch against starter and ex-teammate Kevin Correia other than Aaron Rowand's home run.
"It's fair to say we have some problems getting consistent runs, and we're looking for some help offensively," said Bochy, hoping Guzman will make more of a difference starting tonight.
Guzman learned of his promotion in an 8:30 a.m. wake-up call from Triple-A Fresno manager Dan Rohn. The team was in Iowa, and Guzman grabbed the first flight to San Diego. He was hitting .363 with six homers and 32 RBIs in 39 games.
"We can't put too much on this kid. He hasn't even played a year in Triple-A," Bochy said. "It'll be an adjustment for him."
But Guzman, who appeared shaky in two innings at first base, has high hopes, saying, "I'm going to show what I can do. I want to stay here for the whole year."
The Giants were swept despite having three starters surrendering five runs in 21 innings. Lincecum gave up one run on Eckstein's bloop RBI single in the third while striking out 10 and issuing one walk.
The decisive rally off Wilson began when Kevin Kouzmanoff reached on an infield single and got sacrificed to second. Wilson walked pinch-hitter Tony Gwynn Jr., the newest Padre, and Brian Giles to fill the bases for Eckstein, who got an RBI for being plunked on the left arm.
Hairston ended it with a single to left.
From: MLB.com
 San Francisco (19-21) Lost 3 | San Diego 3, San Francisco 2 |  San Diego (19-22) Won 6 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Standings thru 5/21/09 | Recap: SF | SD | Gameday | Giants stats | Padres stats |
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