Cash Kruth
MLB.com
Friday night didn't exactly go how Jonathan Sanchez predicted.
Five days after guaranteeing a sweep of the Padres, the Giants starter allowed three runs in 5 1/3 innings and took the loss, as San Francisco fell to the Padres, 3-2, at AT&T Park.
Despite the loss, Sanchez (8-8, 3.60 ERA) said afterward he didn't regret the comments he made after his last start in Atlanta.
"I believe in my team. I'm confident in them," said Sanchez, who gave up five hits. "Nothing against them, but I know if we keep fighting out there and keep playing like this, better and better, I think we're going to make it."
Friday's loss continued the Giants' season-long struggles vs. the Padres, against whom the Giants now are 1-8. The win furthered San Diego's lead over the Giants in the National League West to 3 1/2 games.
All nine games have been decided by three runs or fewer, where the difference between winning and losing comes down to the little things.
On Friday, the Padres showed the Giants they have the upper hand in that aspect, which has led them to having the upper hand in the division.
In the second inning with the game tied at 2, San Francisco had runners on first and second with no outs. But Sanchez failed to execute a sacrifice bunt -- bunting it back to the pitcher, who nabbed Juan Uribe at third -- and Aaron Rowand was picked off almost halfway between second and third by Padres starter Clayton Richard (10-5, 3.80).
Afterward, Giants manager Bruce Bochy said Rowand thought the Giants had called a play, which Bochy said was not the case.
The Padres, meanwhile, were able to score in the second inning on a sacrifice fly and also drove home the game-winning run in the sixth inning on a fielder's choice grounder.
"They do the little things right and we haven't," Aubrey Huff said of the Padres' dominance of the Giants. "Runner at third, they're able to get a sac fly. In the second, we have first and second, nobody out, and can't get the bunt down, and that kind of set the tone. We just didn't do the little things that push across runs."
San Diego thought it should have broken a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the fourth inning, when Padres manager Bud Black put the game under protest following a baserunning controversy.
With two outs and runners at first and third, San Diego's Chris Denorfia hit a hard chopper up the middle that bounced off Sanchez to the right side of the infield and ricocheted toward Giants second baseman Freddy Sanchez. San Diego's Scott Hairston was in the way of Sanchez, and first-base umpire Marvin Hudson immediately called Hairston out on runner's interference.
Black argued with umpires for several minutes before crew chief and second-base umpire Derryl Cousins announced the Padres were playing the game under protest. Chase Headley, who was on third at the time, did not score on the play.
After watching the play following the game, Cousins told a pool reporter the crew was "100 percent" right on the call.
Regardless, the point was moot.
Huff almost gave the Giants the win in the eighth, drilling a deep fly ball to center field. With Uribe on first, Huff slowly trotted out of the batter's box, but Denorfia caught the ball at the base of the wall and Posey grounded out to end the inning.
Huff was visibly upset in the dugout and said afterward he thought the ball was gone.
"Yeah. It's all I've got. I've hit that ball a lot and it's usually gone, let's put it that way," Huff said. "But it's just the way this park is. You live and die with your park and we died on that one."
On Saturday, the Giants will look to rebound and try to not fall too far behind the division leaders.
"You always say playing teams like this that are in first place, you always want to take two out of three and we've still got a chance to do that," Huff said. "So we've got to come back tomorrow and definitely get this one."
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