There sit the San Diego Padres, seven games below .500, fourth place in the National League West, eight games behind the first-place Giants. A casual observer outside the Pacific time zone thinks, "Eh, they're playing out the string," but the Padres think otherwise.
They have to believe they can come back and win the West, because last year the Giants did it to them, and their belief must be stronger after they rode into San Francisco and beat two All-Star pitchers.
On Monday it was Tim Lincecum, on Tuesday night Matt Cain, who surrendered all of San Diego's runs in a 5-3 Giants loss.
San Diego's swagger was on display in the seventh inning, after Andres Torres drew a 16-pitch walk from reliever Chad Qualls. With two outs, Pablo Sandoval hitting and the Giants down two runs, Torres made a huge blunder. He tried to score from third on a pitch that bounced only a few yards behind the plate.
Catcher Nick Hundley threw to Qualls, who tagged out Torres. Qualls then hollered in Torres' direction, rose and spiked the ball at the plate.
Torres was not happy after the game, mostly about striking out on three pitches against Heath Bell in the ninth when a single might have tied the game. Torres was not pleased with Qualls either.
"I think that's not respecting the game," Torres said. "It's not professional. I don't believe in making a show on the field. I respect this game. That's why I always run hard. I don't try to make fun of anybody. You don't know what it takes for me to be here. But those things happen, right?"
Manager Bruce Bochy acknowledged that Torres goofed trying to score with the Giants' only true hitting threat at the plate. Earlier, Sandoval singled to extend his career-best hitting streak to 16 games, though his extra-base hitting streak died at nine games, one short of Willie Mays' modern franchise record.
"It was not a good read on his part," Bochy said.
The game turned on a hanging slider from Cain. Given how little the Giants score, that was one hanger too many.
The Giants were leading 3-2 in the sixth. With two on, two outs and Cain 1-2 to Cameron Maybin, Cain and catcher Eli Whiteside had a lengthy chat on which pitch to throw. They settled on the slider, which Maybin slammed through the left-center gap to score two for a 4-3 San Diego lead.
Anthony Rizzo then singled home Maybin for the game's final run.
"It kind of came down to one pitch and I didn't make the pitch, and it cost us the game," Cain said. "In that situation, I'm ahead in the count and I've got to make that pitch, and I didn't do it."
Cain blew leads of 2-0 and 3-2 and lost for the first time since 2009 when getting at least three runs of support.
The Giants lost for the fifth time in seven games that followed a seven-game winning streak. The Padres have won 10 of 13.
No comments:
Post a Comment