Mercury News
SAN DIEGO -- Giants manager Bruce Bochy was not surprised to learn that the Giants' six stolen bases Sunday tied the San Francisco-era franchise record.
"Yeah! Watch out!" he said, heavy on the sarcasm. "We're not that type of club, but we should be able to steal more bases. We're working on other ways to get runs across."
The Giants worked it to perfection in the 11th inning, scoring the tiebreaking run on a suicide squeeze for a 4-3 victory over the San Diego Padres. Emmanuel Burriss raced home on catcher Chris Stewart's bunt, enabling the Giants to dash out of Petco Park having won three of four.
As endings go, it sure beats penalty kicks.
Stewart made an impact in the bottom of the 11th, too. After Brian Wilson walked the first two batters, Stewart sprang from behind the plate to field Kyle Phillips' sacrifice-bunt try and throw on target to third. Pablo Sandoval, not satisfied to record one out, threw a bullet across the diamond to double up Phillips.
"A tiny momentum shift," said Wilson, also heavy on the sarcasm. "I'm never picky about how we win, and that was pretty phenomenal."
Wilson remarked that the six stolen bases are "not something I've seen us do very often." That's because the bearded wonder was a smooth-cheeked kindergartner on Sept. 8, 1987, the last time it happened. Kevin Mitchell stole three, Dave Henderson stole two, and Chris Speier had one against the Houston Astros.
And this time?had one of 'em," catcher Eli Whiteside said. "Well, I'll be damned."
It was a back-and-forth game, if not a classic. Or, as Bochy put it, "It's one of those games you look back and say, 'All's well that ends well.' We certainly made a couple mistakes out there."
Whiteside made the biggest in the sixth inning as the Padres took a 3-2 lead on Orlando Hudson's two-run single. The rally began when Everth Cabrera struck out but reached first base on Matt Cain's pitch in the dirt that Whiteside secured. The catcher said he thought Cabrera foul-tipped the pitch, which is why he turned to show the baseball to plate umpire Marvin Hudson instead of throwing to first.
"We were helpless. We were yelling as loud as we could to throw to first base," Bochy said. "No question, you know how hard he would've taken this. He was really hard on himself when he realized what happened."
Said Whiteside: "It didn't end up the way it should have. I should've thrown it no matter what. That did hurt us, but I'm just glad it didn't cost us the game."
Whiteside took charge of his own redemption after reaching base in the seventh. He noted that Mat Latos, the heel of last year's N.L. West soap opera, was slow to the plate. So Whiteside stole second base and positioned himself to score the tying run on Andres Torres' single up the middle.
A half-dozen players mentioned it: The Padres play the thief and eke out runs all the time. Why can't the Giants do it, too?
"That was beautiful -- awesome to watch guys get those jumps," said Cain, who struck out nine in six innings. "It's something as an offense we could keep doing."
Burriss started the rally with a one-out single off Chad Qualls. The Padres, sensing the speedy infielder would run, pitched out on the 0-1 delivery to Stewart. It didn't matter. Burriss had the base stolen easily and went to third when Phillips' throw sailed into center field.
With the squeeze play an obvious call, the Padres pitched out again. But there was nothing on. With the count now 2-1, Bochy sprang the trap, and Stewart executed it perfectly.
"We had the right guy up there to get a bunt down, and we had speed at third," Bochy said. "At that point, it's a good play. If they pitch out, they've got you. If they don't, they can't defend it."
Nate Schierholtz and Burriss each stole two bases -- the first time all season a Giant had multiple steals in a game.
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