SAN DIEGO — The Giants have grown familiar with being behind the eight ball. Roughly half their wins have been of the comeback variety. Playing from behind is a risky gambit, and against baseball’s best bullpen, their latest effort to erase a lead fell short.
In front of the second-largest announced attendance in Petco Park history, the Giants fell to the San Diego Padres, 7-4, in their first meeting with a fellow NL West team this season.
The Giants entered the sixth inning trailing, 5-1, after Logan Webb allowed a season-high five earned runs over five innings. Down four runs, they inched their way back into the ballgame.
Willy Adames, who hit a solo homer in the fourth inning, set the table with a double against the Padres’ Nick Pivetta. Jung Hoo Lee followed up with a single that drove in Adames, reducing the deficit to 5-2.
The next two batters struck out, but following Heliot Ramos’ single, the struggling LaMonte Wade Jr. drove in two runs off reliever Jeremiah Estrada with a much-needed opposite-field double, his first extra-base hit since April 11. San Francisco wouldn’t tie the game in the sixth, but reduced the deficit to 5-4. The Padres ensured those comeback efforts were in vain.
Randy Rodríguez entered the bottom of the seventh inning with a pristine 0.00 ERA but allowed his first two runs of the year as Xander Bogaerts lined a two-run shot over the left-field lead. San Diego’s lead expanded to 7-4, and that was more than enough breathing room for the Padres’ elite crop of relievers. Jason Adam handled the eighth, and Robert Suarez shut it down in the ninth.
While Webb allowed a season-high nine hits en route to allowing a season-high five runs, the Padres weren’t exactly generating a ton of hard contact. Of the nine hits that Webb allowed, four registered at under 80 mph.
The right-hander began his evening with two quick outs but ended up allowing three runs in the first, putting the Giants in an early 3-0 deficit. The right-hander executed his pitches and kept away from the heart of the zone in the first, but San Diego countered with quality swings. Xander Bogaerts snuck a single through the middle on an inside sinker to drive in a run, then Jose Iglesias lunged at an outside sweeper but lifted it to right field to drive in two runs of his own.
The dinks and doinks would become a theme for Webb. He didn’t allow a run in the second inning but gave up two soft hits; Elias Díaz muscled a 71.6 mph broken-bat single up the middle, then Luis Arraez dropped in a single that landed right in front of Mike Yastrzemski. The trend continued in the fourth inning, paving the way for San Diego to score two more runs.
Jason Heyward led off the fourth with a 76.5 mph, one that dropped in front of left fielder Heliot Ramos and rolled past him when he was unable to stop the ball. Díaz followed Heyward by poking another softly-hit ball through the infield, this one clocking in at 72.0 mph. Those back-to-back hits by Heyward and Díaz set the stage for Arraez’s sacrifice fly and Manny Machado’s RBI singles, putting five runs on Webb’s docket.