By Morris Phillips

Rene Rivera’s been attempting to make a splash at the major league level for more than a decade.

Madison Bumgarner made that same splash as a 20-year old for the Giants.  At 21, he was a world champion and a World Series hero.

Guess which guy beat the other to the punch on Monday night at AT&T Park?

Rivera hit a dart down the line past Pablo Sandoval in the fourth and smashed a homer in the fifth—both off of Bumgarner–and racked up a career-best five runs batted in as the Padres got past the Giants, 6-4.  The 30-year old backup catcher from Puerto Rico had just 19 major-league extra-base hits prior to Monday… in 348 at-bats over fits and starts of six seasons with three different teams.  To say this was the biggest statement Rivera had made at the big league-level would be an understatement.

“It’s been a long time coming,” manager Bud Black said of his team’s surprise star.  “You never know who’s gonna be the guy on a certain night, and tonight it came from Rene Rivera.”

“It’s a good feeling.  It’s a good feeling for the team,” Rivera said.  “We needed this one.”

While Rivera was having his breakout moments in the middle innings, the Giants were too, scoring four times to keep it close.  But the San Diego bullpen—with four relievers—shut down the San Francisco hitters over the final 3 1/3 innings allowing the Padres to snap the Giants’ four-game win streak.

What made the evening rather remarkable was how the Padres overcame numerous absences in their lineup and took advantage of Bumgarner, who lost his third consecutive decision.  The young lefty was taxed all evening, and needed 93 pitches to get through five innings against a lineup missing Chase Headley, Seth Smith and Carlos Quentin due to injury and second baseman Jedd Gyorko due to maternity leave.  Only three guys in the Padres lineup had averages over .200 befitting the team’s status as the baseball’s most tepid offense—averaging just 2.7 runs per game coming in. Still, typical of the Padres under Black, they were extremely competitive and despite the lack of experience and pop in their lineup, well prepared by hitting coach Phil Plantier, who provided plenty of tips to his guys on how to disrupt Bumgarner.

“I wasn’t able to make pitches today,” the pitcher said. “I left a lot of balls over the middle. I felt today was the worst game I had command-wise.”

The Padres appeared to be getting the flawless start they had to have from Berkeley’s Tyson Ross, as he faced the minimum through three.  But then Ross ran into trouble in the fourth and fifth, allowing five hits and four runs, with Michael Morse’s simple but effective two-run single through the box ranking as the key hit in the Giants’ responses to early 2-0 and 5-3 deficits.

The Giants had an opportunity after that, wasting Buster Posey’s double in the sixth as Brandon Hicks flew out to deep left with the bases loaded to end that inning.

After allowing the Indians just five runs in a weekend sweep, the Giants allowed six to the Padres, with reliever Javier Lopez giving up an insurance run in the ninth.

The numbers show that the Giants are a classic frontrunners in 2014 and that continued Monday.  When they score first, they’re 10-1, when they don’t—which was the case on Monday—they’re 5-10.

The Giants remained in first place in the NL West despite the loss, a half-game ahead of the Rockies, who won, and a full-game ahead of the Dodgers, who were idle. On Tuesday, Matt Cain goes for the Giants—he will make his final attempt at an initial win in the month of April, he’s 0-3—while Eric Stultz takes the ball for the Padres at 7:15pm.