By Morris Phillips

In a battle of the frustrated and the really frustrated, the really frustrated Padres were runaway winners on Monday.

The really frustrated Padres–who announced after Sunday’s game that GM Josh Byrne had been fired, the result of two losing seasons and the Padres headed inextricably toward a third—got a stellar, major league-debut from starter Odrisamer Despaigne and shutout the Giants, 6-0.  San Diego still trails the Giants by 12 ½ games, but their professional integrity can’t be questioned in this situation which a lot of times isn’t the case.

“Our guys play,” manager Bud Black said of his Padres.  “They come to play every night, and we’re proud of that.”

The merely frustrated Giants and cornerstone pitcher Matt Cain took the loss.  The Giants are 3-10 in their last 13 games, and Cain’s 1-6 on the season with an ERA way too close to 5.00 at 4.82.  Frustrating evening, but the first place Giants saw the Dodgers lose in Kansas City on Monday and their four game lead in the NL West was preserved.

The Giants hodge-podge lineup minus leadoff hitter Angel Pagan, Brandon Hicks and the disabled Brandon Belt flopped again with a double and three singles on the night. The current string of poor play has the Giants looking like old June Swoon crews from Candlestick days past, or at least looking like a team in desperate need of a trade-deadline pickup to help on offense, in this case, way before the July 31 deadline grows near.

Regarding who could help the Giants most immediately, Pagan missed his eighth straight game on Monday with an ailing back, but remains on the active roster with no decision on a trip to the disabled list.  Marco Scutaro has intensified his workouts but still has no announced date for his 2014 debut.

Cain pitched well on Monday with the exception of the fourth inning when he allowed three runs on four hits.  The big blow in the inning saw Yasmani Grandal hit a ball into Triples Alley that was helped into the seats by a fan who reached over the brick wall to catch the ball.  The umpires initially ruled the drive a home run, but the MLB instant replay crew in New York correctly reversed the call, giving Grandal a double, but with two runners on base, they ordered trail runner Seth Smith back to third base.

“There’s no way Smitty doesn’t score on that play,” Black said.  The San Diego manager left with no one to complain to—as dictated by the new replay rules–complained anyway and was tossed by home plate umpire Marvin Hudson.  Hard to argue with Black on this one: the play came with two outs and on a 2-2 pitch with Smith obviously running on contact.

The Padres added three more runs in the eighth on another four hits and a costly Giants’ error.  Cain was still around in the eighth–attempting to make soup with no hot water—but was relieved by Bruce Bochy after Everth Cabrera’s RBI single and Hunter Pence’s throwing error on the play allowed a second run to score.  Smith greeted reliever Javier Lopez with a run-scoring double to complete the scoring on the evening.

But the real story was Despaigne, the Cuban export at age 27 making his big league debut in his first year in the Padres organization.  Not the big name that Yoenis Cespedes and Yasiel Puig have become, but plenty competent, Despaigne showed great versatility and control in his pitches and was never seriously challenged in seven innings of work.

“Pitched great, didn’t he?” Black gushed.  “(Padres’ minor league brass) said that there was enough flashes through these minor league outings that this guy knows what he’s doing.  And that’s what he did today.”

Despaigne threw first-pitch strikes to 15 of the 24 batters he faced and needed just 86 pitches to get through seven innings.  Cain, for that matter, threw first-pitch strikes to 24 of the 29 batters he faced and only walked one guy.  The Giants’ preferred staff anchor threw 102 pitches on the evening and looked far better than he did in Chicago last week where the White Sox touched him for eight runs on 10 hits. 

On Tuesday, the Giants turn to Tim Hudson who will face the Padres’ Jesse Hahn at 7:15pm.