Mercury News
The Giants must move heaven and earth to beat the San Diego Padres this season. So they might have found some hope in the magnitude 5.1 quake that gently rocked Petco Park before the first pitch Tuesday.
As for the rest? Heaven helped them.
It took 12 innings and their last drop of depth, but the Giants finally stopped their losing streak against the Padres. Matt Downs hit a two-run double that brought in Ryan Rohlinger and Eli Whiteside, then Eugenio Velez added a run-scoring single as the Giants took a 7-6 victory in front of a crowd of 19,565.
The parade of unlikely heroes actually began in the eighth inning, when Andres Torres crushed a tying, two-run home run off stingy setup man Mike Adams.
And it ended with another dramatic finish from Brian Wilson. The Giants closer allowed a two-out, two-run double to David Eckstein, then manager Bruce Bochy gambled by putting the potential winning run on base. He had Wilson intentionally walk star slugger Adrian Gonzalez to get to Chase Headley, who struck out on a wicked slider to end it.
"Oh, Willie," Bochy said. "I told him, 'Go by my grave site and say I helped put you there.' "
The 4-hour, 7-minute game wasn't easy, but it was satisfying. The Giants are 1-7 against the Padres and trail them by a half-game in the NL West. The two clubs have 10 games remaining, but they won't see each other again until Aug. 13.
"It saves a little sanity around here; I'm not going to lie," Bochy said. "There's a good chance it could have happened again. They fought. They were determined to break this streak." The lopsided series will be a topic when it resumes in three months. But perhaps it won't be as urgent now that the Giants have one in their column. It took 68 innings and eight games, but they finally took a lead against the Padres in the fourth. Their two-run rally also represented their first runs against young right-hander Mat Latos, who had thrown 19 scoreless innings against them this season. The Giants grabbed the lead with four singles and some aggressive baserunning. Pablo Sandoval went from first to third on Juan Uribe's single and scored when Nate Schierholtz lined a single to right field. Uribe also went from first to third and scored when Eli Whiteside's ground hugger barely scooted past the diving attempt of second baseman David Eckstein. Jonathan Sanchez retired the first 12 hitters he faced, but any thoughts of a perfect game were disrupted when Headley singled to lead off the fifth. It turned out to be the first of four consecutive singles, and five in the inning. The Padres took a 4-2 lead on Jerry Hairston Jr.'s two-out, two-run single to left field. Until then, Sanchez had mastered the Padres. In his previous four starts against them — a run that began with his July 10 no-hitter — Sanchez had allowed just seven hits and four runs in 291/3 innings. Now the Giants go to Chase Field, the liveliest ballpark in the NL West, and home to a miserable Arizona Diamondbacks staff that has the worst ERA in the league. After the game, Bochy said the Giants would activate second baseman Freddy Sanchez from the disabled list today. Bochy will have some lineup decisions to make. It seemingly makes sense for the Giants to install Torres in the leadoff spot and stick Sanchez behind him, but Bochy resisted the idea of moving Aaron Rowand from atop the lineup. Rowand entered Tuesday's game in a 2-for-27 slump; his .304 on-base percentage was unimpressive for a leadoff hitter. "Right now, that's where he's at, and he's done a really nice job there to start the season," Bochy said. "But sure, it's an option if we think we need help down the order." Bochy hinted that he might leave Torres in the No. 2 spot and bat Sanchez third, which would bump Sandoval into the cleanup role. "This team has a lot of movable parts," Bochy said. "That's why we're having some of these lengthy discussions here."
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