Manager Bruce Bochy is not a big team-meeting guy, so when he is riled enough to keep the postgame spread simmering in the dining room for a few extra minutes, his message tends to resonate.
Bochy's first postgame meeting of 2010 followed Wednesday night's 5-2 loss to the Padres. He figured the Giants' fifth loss in five games against the team they might be chasing in the National League West all summer might be a good time to air his grievances.
"I'm a little disappointed with things that happened tonight," Bochy said. Asked if his message was to play smarter, he said, "Exactly. This is the major leagues, and we're making some mistakes that shouldn't be happening."
Start with Matt Cain, who has faced the Padres 15 times since the start of 2007 and beaten them once despite a workable 3.68 ERA.
Cain's worst start of the season, five earned runs in 6 2/3 innings, featured two 0-2 pitches that Yorvit Torrealba rapped for RBI singles. Cain also threw a seventh-inning fastball that crossed up catcher Bengie Molina for a passed ball that set up San Diego's fifth run. Aaron Rowand airmailed a throw home on Torrealba's second RBI single that allowed the Padres catcher to take an extra base. Giants hitters ended two rallies with called third strikes.
"We're not playing well against them," Bochy said. "They've shut us down. They've played better ball than we have. We know it. We're a better club than this."
And scoring too few runs.
The Giants scored twice off left-hander Clayton Richard, who balked home one of the runs. Andres Torres, who also made two highlight-quality catches in left field, singled home the other.
The Giants are averaging 1.6 runs per game against the Padres, compared with a fraction over five runs per game against the other nine teams they have played. No wonder the Padres were able to deal San Francisco its first home series loss of 2010.
Aubrey Huff, who seemed immune to the team-wide double-play bug, grounded into two of them, both after Molina hit inning-opening singles.
The Giants' best opportunity came in the sixth inning when they were down 4-2 but loaded the bases with two outs for Nate Schierholtz. He got ahead 2-0 but grounded into an inning-ending force.
Pablo Sandoval took better cuts for the second consecutive game but had only one hit, a single. He said the Giants' futility against the Padres is "part of the game," but perhaps echoing a sentiment from Bochy in the team meeting, Sandoval said, "When we play them we have to play like every game is a championship game, try to get those wins."
Cain absorbed much of the blame. Torrealba now has 22 RBIs in 37 games against the Giants since they traded him in 2005. "We've had some close games with them," Cain said. "Today I did some things wrong, and that's why we lost."
The Giants have one more chance this series to beat the Padres. Today's finale pits Jonathan Sanchez and Mat Latos in a rematch of the April 20 game in San Diego in which the Giants allowed one hit in nine innings and lost.
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